"Stand To Your Glasses Steady"

[CindyLouCovington]

This is an old World War One drinking song, particularly popular among aviators, at least this version, bitter and cynical  as were most of those songs(understandably) which somehow seems appropriate to us. There are of course many variations of the lyrics.

                                 Stand to your glasses steady
                                 This world is a world of LIES
                                  Drink to those dead already
                                  And hurrah for the next to die

                                  DENIED BY THE LAND THAT BORE US
                                  BETRAYED BY THOSE THAT WE HOLD DEAR
                                  The good have all gone before us
                                   Now only the DEAD are here

                                   We loop in the purple twilight
                                    We spin in the silvery dawn
                                    With a trail of smoke behind us
                                     To show where our friends have gone

                                     So stand to your glasses steady
                                      And send up a toast to the sky
                                      One for those dead already
                                      And one for the NEXT to die!