In Drunken Paradise
As summer days were waning, warm and long,
I made new friends (I thought, but I thought wrong).
We drank the nights away with bloodshot eyes
When we were friends in drunken paradise.
They let me in their circle for a while,
Then shut me out, as if part of their guile.
They were my friends, but by my thoughts deceived,
Strong friendship out of drunkenness I believed.
One day I realized we were never close,
But I’d imagined it in my repose;
So no sooner said hello than said goodbye,
That summer ended. South, the birds would fly.
Once in a while we talk, but I don’t share
As much as they, for they don’t really care.
They want an intermediary now?
It is not me, I was the friend left out.
The millstone ground more slowly ev’ry day
As soon all of your friends did fall away.
You never thought that it would come to this,
The rumor mill shut down for lack of grist.
Eventually, I found my friends anew,
Those I know aren’t faking it. But you
Have lost yours in the dark and snowy nights,
Wond’ring which of them turned out the lights.
For me, this ends that story. All is well.
For you? That’s not for me to say, so tell
The stories of the warm and lasting nights
(And maybe then you’ll turn on all the lights),
When we were friends, in drunken paradise.
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