'Drinking in the Day'

I opened a Corona Light (a lot of lime and a little salt) bright and early this morning to watch MLB's season opening game that was being played in Japan. I muted the game, turned up the iPod and put this Irish drinking song on repeat. Cheers - to Saint and all.

I met her up on Leeson Street of a Tuesday afternoon
In summer's fallen colors, sulking back to school
I asked her would she linger, I asked her would she stay
Would she keep a man in company, drinking in the day?

Drinking, drinking
Drinking... not thinking
Drinking, drinking
We'll go drinking in the day

She was almost a woman, she was going on sixteen
She asked me to go walking in Saint Stephen's Green
She said, 'I love the sunshine, and to hear the children play.'
But I won't be distracted when I'm drinking in the day.

With her flashing eyes and milk white lies she looked like a song
Like the ghost of a woman that first made me go wrong
She said, 'I'll have a drink with you' I said, 'you'll have to pay'
For a comprehensive education: Drinking in the Day

Drinking, drinking
Drinking and not thinking
Drinking, drinking
We'll go drinking in the day

If her mother could have seen us on that bright November day
Botticelli and his angel perambulating Ormond Quay
A drunken blessed virgin, me rhetorious and gay
Bestowing ancient wisdom as to what made me this way:

Deny your friends and family
To serve you must betray
Break and enter heaven
Steal but never save
Squander every penny
Empty every heart
Travel every darkened road
Never finish what you start
Always talk to strangers
Make love with whom you may
For God will find you good company for your drinking in the day

Drinking, drinking
Drinking and not thinking
Drinking, drinking
We'll go drinking in the day

So spend your youth on poetry, and spend your cash at play
Each line upon my face is for a girl who went away
A kiss and a song are fleeting things and fame will always stray
So I'll tell the truth, the best spent youth, is the one you throw away

Drinking, drinking
Drinking... not thinking
Drinking, drinking
We'll go drinking in the day

- Lyrics by Bono and Simon Carmody

Listen to (Chicago-based, Celtic punk band) The Tossers' excellent cover of "Drinking in the Day" which opens with the reading of a poem called "Clearing a Space" by Brendan Kennelly. Sláinte!