The Prologue	    

	    On Fat Tuesday, the revelry commenced,
	To make up for the forty days of Lent
	That started on the next Ash Wednesday morn' 
	And stretched until the day that Christ's reborn.
5	But this Mardi, we celebrate!  We don
	Our costumes, saddle up our mounts, and on
	The stoke of noon, proceed across the land, 
	To gather fowl the farm wives have on hand
	For evening's celebration feast.  With cart
10	Behind, on which musicians ply their art,
	The twenty riders drink and revel strong
	But of them, six stand out among the throng.
	    Piere Gaspard, obnoxious as can be,
	Forever claiming to have hurt his knee, 
15	By far the laziest among the men,
	He always laughs at other's cost, and then
	Takes great offense when others laugh at him;
	He feels that all should heed his every whim.    
	    In contrast to Raoul, there also rides
20	A calm and quiet man with ice-blue eyes,
	Whose gentle soul is anything but cold;
	And thought approaching eighty, is not old.
	It's always unexpected when Ray tells
	Off-colored stories and amusing tales.
25	    Rene, well-liked, a kind and friendly guy, 
	Is also known for being somewhat sly.
	Forever having something up his sleeve,
	His friends he only jokingly deceives;
	With playful tricks and antics, innocent, 
30	He still remains a well-liked Cajun gent.
	    The next young chap is quite a pleasant man,
	Who's always willing, quite, to lend a hand, 
	And never shirks his duties even though
	He's sometimes worthy of a break, you know.
35	He's very handy on accordion;
	From time to time, he joins the musicians.
	    Now, Sidney is an interesting man,
	Exaggerating anything he can.
	The seven fish his buddies saw him score,
40	In tale, turned into twenty fish or more.
	Among his friends, his fibbing is renown, 
	But strangers, fooled, believe his story's sound.
	     A fellow, Paul, gregarious and loud,
	Loves nothing more than telling jokes to crowds.
45	Say any word that quickly comes to mind,
	And Paul will conjure up a funny line
	Or joke.  He never tires of clowning ‘round;
	With him about, you'll find it hard to frown.
 
	
Gerald's Tale

	    I had a trusty friend twelve years ago,
	When times were tough and all supplies were low.
	Now, rubber in particular was short;
	The act of mending tires had turned to sport.
5	My friend, Raoul, one day had come to eat
	And, finishing, he stood up on his feet;
	He bid farewell and walked out to his truck
	To find that he was sorely out of luck
	Because his right rear tire had now gone flat.
10	He mended it then drank some coffee at
	His friend's abode and then prepared to leave
	But found, again, to his dismay that he'd
	Acquired another flat, this time in front, 
	And for another patch he had to hunt.    
15	Now when the mending then was done this time, 
	He stood up, looked about, only to find
	The sun had set and dinner had been made;
	Of course, he was invited then to stay.
	Each tire successively went flat that night,
20	And by the time he left, ‘twas almost light.


Ray's Tale

	    Two girls they shared their duties every morn';
	To empty le pot chombre was one to scorn.
	This day, ‘twas Sonia's turn to rid the pot
	And, being squeamish, this task she did not
5	Much care for.  She was running late that day
	And consequently went about her way
	With too much haste, and so she tripped and fell.    
	The contents spilled upon her and the smell 
	Was so horrendous that she had to stay 
10	At home to wash her dirty dress that day.


Paul's Tale

	    My friend, Clovis, was baking bisquits on
	A lazy Sunday morn'.  And as he yawned, 
	Neglected to include the part that makes
	The biscuits light and fluffy when one bakes.
5	His bread, it did not rise for him that day.
	"They're hard as bricks," I loudly heard him say
	To no one as he picked one up and threw.
	"Ball one!" he yelled, and then, "Ball two!"

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