Instructions for Summer
Turn
the air
on high. Wear
shorts. Lose the shoes.
Watch the weather news
while praying for showers.
Wilt like the plants and flowers.
Mow that grass and chug that water.
It’s just July. It will get hotter.
When you’re too weary to walk, just totter.
A Memorable Time at Church
I dashed off to the ladies’ room
just after Sunday School was through.
The service that would soon begin,
I’d relish from my favorite pew.
As I sailed down the lengthy hall,
I felt the cool, conditioned air—
more in the back than in the front,
but I trucked on, Miss Unaware.
I reached the sanctuary door
and saw that I was not alone.
A red-faced deacon spoke to me—
few words, low voice, with gentle tone.
The lesson learned that day: Before
I enter church and strike a pose,
I really must be sure my dress
is not tucked in my pantyhose.
Janice Canerdy is a retired high-school English teacher from Potts Camp, Mississippi. She has been writing since early childhood. Her poems and stories have appeared in numerous magazines and journals, including The Road Not Taken, Lyric, Parody, Bitterroot, Cyclamens and Swords, Wild Violet, Society of Classical Poets, and Southern Tablet; and anthologies, including those published by the Mississippi Poetry Society, the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, Whispering Angel Books, and Quill Books.