Mr. Duchnowski's Bean suppers

This is one of my favorite poems from my book of poetry and prose "A Little Something." You can learn more about this book and how to purchase it by clicking the link to the right of this page. Thanks. I hope you enjoy it.

MISTER DUCHNOWSKI’S BEAN SUPPERS

The majority of my friends, and myself, spent the most of our young adult lives ... looking for love in all of the wrong places. I don’t think that we knew what we were doing. I don’t think that we realized that we were looking for love. But that is what we were doing. That is what we are all doing ... no matter how we express or try to deny it. That is what we are doing.
Mister Duchnowski was the dad of one of my bosom lifelong buddies. Every time that we saw him, he had the same advice for us. We had heard his advice so many times, that we knew his lecture by heart. We were always respectful to Mister D., but for the most part we thought of him as somewhat odd. I think that he knew what we thought, but he continued to give us the same speech nevertheless. There were times when we just laughed. We never took him seriously. We never really listened to his well intended lecture. And, we never followed his advice.
Today, Mister Duchnowski is no longer with us, but I can still see him smiling, his teeth back home on the bureau soaking in a glass, his stained, flat-topped golf cap stationed askew atop his wavy gray, and those Polish eyes sparkling sincerely and hopefully as he offered to us his best thought considerations with regards to our future love life. I still smile as I hear his voice, but now that I am the age that he was then, I have to think twice about what he was trying to say to us. I don’t think that we should have been laughing.
Here’s to you Mister D; and here’s Mister D to the all of you.


MR. DUCHNOWSKI’S BEAN SUPPERS

Listen to me ... listen to me!
You guys is entirely on the wrong track, ya see.

Skip the nightclubs, the booze, and the dim lights.
Take yourself down to a church bean supper one of these
nights.

The prettiest girls that you have ever seen,
Are right there in the line, spoonin’ out the beans.

I know, I know, you think that I’m old and outta my mind,
But believe me, at them ham and bean suppers
Are the prettiest girls that you’ll ever find.

You wouldn’t believe the girl last night
Slicin’ up the German rye.
It gave ten years back to my life
Just to see that sweet look in her eye.

And next to her, with the Polish Kielbasey,
Was an Italian girl by the name of Bonacarsee.

That dark hair and olive skin ... she could a been a movie star.
And there you guys are, down some dive or two bit bar.


What do you think you’re gonna meet down there?
You guys are missin’ it, I’m tellin’ ya ... but I don’t care.

My life’s over. It’s no matter to me.
But if it’s beautiful girls that you’re lookin’ for
Them bean suppers is where you oughta be.
That’s right! That’s right!

Oh yeah, you can laugh all you want,
But them church bean suppers
Are the places you guys oughta haunt.
The prettiest girls that I’ve ever seen,
Spoonin’ out pork ‘n beans like outta some dream.

You guys is just missin’ the boat.
Why it puts a lump right here in my throat
To think if I was you guy-es age,
I’ll tell ya, I wouldn’t be watchin’ some nude-y
Dancin’ in some cage.

I’d be down to one of them bean suppers, in a rush
Tryin’ to steal a smile or pinch a blush
From one of them lovelies with sauce on her apron,
And bread flour smearin’ her chest.

Take it from me, it’s at them bean suppers
Where the girls are the best.

You can leave it behind ... you can forget all the rest,
Try one of them church bean suppers

And then you tell me if them girls ain’t the best.
That’s right! That’s right!
You try one of them bean suppers some night.
Then you come back and tell me if old Mr. Duchnowski
Didn’t tell ya what’s right.

You just try one of them bean suppers some night
And see if what I tell you ain’t right.