First Wednesday In Clarion Poem by Michael Pruchnicki

Purple order of hurt meets every month
in the hall of the local club
though most of them are now gone
a few survivors lounge at the bar
hell, we wouldn't give a bean
the host would trumpet

we don't have anything to trumpet
about - since it's once a month
we collect benefits even if we're off our bean
and need a hammer or a club
to make us belly up to the bar
before like the wind we're gone

once we left town and were gone
before Gabriel could blow his trumpet
and the honey raised the bar
for vigor and vim all that month
the girls joined our convivial club
even the guy with one leg, a string bean

of a guy from a town where Methodist bean
soup is served daily and the girls are gone
fishing for bait to catch or club
any bachelor who can blow his trumpet
the first Wednesday of each month
and Mimi dances and tends bar!