Broken Cup

Well the swing set is rusted
The picture frame's cracked
The photos have all faded to gray
The faces you trusted
Just never came back
Yes childhood has eroded away
And the songs that your mother sang
As she rocked you to sleep
You howl out of tune when you're drunk
Wear good shoes on these streets
Or you'll soon cut your feet
On a piece of the broken cup

After so many Johns and Janes
Have stained your sheets
Is it habit or thirst brings them back?
After so many pipers
Have played on these streets
Who is missed more, the children or the rats?
Yes we've traded our toy choo-choo trains
And rosary beads
For a bottle of gin and a fuck
Now we sit 'round the bar
Proud of how bored we are
As we drink from our broken cup

We sing, "everything, everything, everything
Is now permitted
All the oaths we've taken
Have been graciously forgotten
And every sin, every sin
Is now forgiven."
And every sip somehow tastes rotten

So let's drink to the men
Who forgot what they lost
They've got the best shoes that money can buy
And a toast to our impotence
Our cowardice, our sloth
Nothing matters, why bother to try?
And three cheers for Mary
Our virgin, our whore
If she favors you, it's just dumb luck
Now I'll lift up my glass
To a life on our ass
Brothers, lift your cup high
While your waiting to die
May we all find a trace
A faint echo of grace
Through the crack in our broken cup