Erstwhile Erratic Alcoholics

Our Society then entered a fearsome and exciting adolescent period. The test that it faced was this: Could these large numbers of erstwhile erratic alcoholics successfully meet and work together? Would there be quarrels over membership, leadership, and money? Would there be strivings for power and prestige? Would there be schisms which would split A.A. apart? ~ Alcoholics Anonymous, Foreword to the Second Edition

Erstwhile. An archaic adverb.
Erstwhile binging purging restricting
addicted eaters, once upon a time
in lala-land.
Erratic. Not even or regular
in pattern, in movement, unpredictable.
Capable of stinking thinking, of willfulness,
of moments sublime.
Addicts. Forever and always addicted
even when freed of the clutches long years,
able to plunge back into insanity
or rise to heights beyond wildest dreams...