Drink Friends Drink

Drink friends, drink,
and friends let's drink again.
The bottle will be empty,
But not before the end.

I've traveled near and far,
and now I'm back to stay,
Had enough travelin',
enough of the wanderin' way.

I saw the stars o'er Mexico,
'neath her thighs spread wide.
She said, "Stay!", Lord I had to go,
Though in her belly grew my pride.

Drink friends, drink,
and friends let's drink again,
the bottle will be empty,
but not until the end.

Waking somewhere in the East,
I couldn't see nor feel,
Drinking hard, sans surcease,
With the devil I made my deal.

"Son, be careful what you ask,
take care with what you say,
You might try to fit the mask,
But the truth gets in the way."

Drink friends, drink,
and friends let's drink again,
though the bar be empty,
there's more 'fore the end.

"You can leave 'em in the alley,
You can leave 'em in the night,
But there ain't no son o' Sally,
Won't let you go without a fight."

Well I heard those words and they rang true,
Though the goat himself had said it,
I wanted out; to 'scape my due,
And profferred my soul for credit.

Drink friends, drink,
and friends let's drink again,
the promise may be empty,
a bargain without end.

The goat just smiled -- winked one eye,
Which kind of made me shudder,
"The answer's easy -- stay a while,
The end could be another."

When he was done and satisfied,
and we had shaken hands,
to his work he fled and hied,
to still my sired bands.

Drink friends, drink,
and friends let's drink again,
their bellies will be empty,
but thus it is an end.

I've got my hidden pleasures
hidden sorrows, hidden truths,
and nigh forgotten treasures,
that the whiskey never soothes.

Haunted by their ghosts,
and their long aborted cries,
though forgotten are their hosts,
yet remembered are their eyes.

Drink friends, drink,
and friends let's drink again.
The bottle now is emptied,
and so we're at the end.

Track Twelve of the Obsidian Smoke Rings Album.