Brothers

Let’s have another drink, my friend, I’m buying them tonight. What little I have, I want to spend, Come on, it’s quite all right.

I, too, have wound up down and out A score of times or more. I’ve ridden ‘rattlers’ ’round about, Slept on a box-car’s floor.

I drank my coffee from a can, And ‘boiled-up’ in the jungles, And I respect the kind of man Who keeps trying though he bungles.

I know how long a night can last When ‘sleeping in the weeds.’ No need to tell you of my past, Much like your own it reads.

I carry ghosts within my heart, No doubt you do the same. And like you, from the very start I’ve played a losing game.

But come, let’s have another drink, Leave sighing to the winners. Let’s take the hard knocks with a wink; Be game, though shunned as sinners.