The art of drinking isn't hard to master;
quotidian time seems filled with adventure
so drinking today again is no disaster

Drink every day. Accept the fluster
of broken bones, the puke on the carpet.
The art of drinking isn't hard to master.

Then practice drinking farther, drinking faster;
places, and names, and what it was you ment
to remember. None of these will bring disaster

I woke up in a ditch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of my childhood I can't remember.
The art of drinking isn't hard to master.

I lost my friends, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some anguished memories, two fingers, a home.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster

-Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of drinking not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.