Two Quaking Shakers

I like women too much, Ebenezer,
but don't you go think I don't believe
Mother Ann Lee's departure presaged
The Second Appearing as feminine.
She was, after all, the Holy Spirit
Incarnate, was she not?

Still, Miss Pettibone's a fine piece of work
who knows how to shake by the way,
though don't you go tell her brother,
glaring as he does at Thaddeus's
cockeyed glances across the room
when we all dance the Hollow Square.

It's bad enough only five of us
remain and we quibble about the farm,
the livestock needing more hay before winter,
and Sisters Hortense and Emily
(May Holy Mother Wisdom forgive me)
what world people call menopausal.

Alas!, last night as the harvest moon rose
through the crescent hole of the privy,
I lost my way to sin, Ebenezer,
with spiders, crickets, and splinters therein,
and a corseted Sarah Pettibone,
but Oh! what glorious pain!