Poetry can tickle a funny bone!

Recently our Providence Associates coming to retreat were invited to bring professional clothing to donate to the Well Suited for the Job Boutique. These donations assist the Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College Career Development Office to prepare its students and recent alumni for job interviews and internships.

With this humorous SP poem from earlier days, we celebrate the generous response both of the Providence Associates and those who contributed to this cause at the January Taizé service.

Tale of a Suit

The skirt and the jacket

were parted one day

when Sister Marian Elizabeth

gave them away.

The skirt she put out

with odds and ends,

and the jacket she gave

to one of her friends.

Sister J. saw the skirt

and it looked okay,

“I’ll wear it” she said

“some warm summer day.”

Now the skirt and the jacket

ended up at the Woods

in two different closets –

the very same goods.

The skirt-Sister was wearing

that skirt the day

that the jacket-Sister decided

to give hers away.

They met on the elevator

(this is for real!)

The two of them made

a hasty deal –

“You take the jacket –

it’s a perfect match!”

“Of course I will!

What a wonderful catch!”

The point of it all

is as plain as day –

You can’t keep a skirt

from its jacket away!

Mary Joanita Walsh, SP (RIP)

(reprint from Community July-August, 1994)