We Loop in the Purple Twilight

cho: So stand to your glasses, steady
This world is a world full of lies;
Drink a health to the dead already
And here's to the next man who dies.

We stand 'neath resounding rafters
The walls all around us are bare.
They echo with the laughter,
It seems that the dead are all there.

In flaming Spads and Camels
With wings made of wood and steel
We gamble for stakes that are mortal
With cards that are stacked for the deal.

We loop in the purple sunset
We spin in the silver dawn;
With a plume of smoke behind us
To show where our comrades have gone

Additional verse from Songs from the Front and Rear, Hopkins

Cut off from the land that bore us
Betrayed by the land we find.
All the good men have gone before us
And only the dull left behind.


From "Wild Blue Yonder"
See also: Here's to the Last to Die
RG