^^^ Dec 3rd online & lyrics

'Absent Friends'
by His Worship and the Pig
Dave Boulton(words) and Jeff Parton(tune)

CHORUS:
Come raise your glass and drink to absent friends
As the door behind us closes and another day begins
Think on the ones we’ve loved and lost who’ll never come again
Come raise your glass and drink to absent friends

Here among this company convivial and bright
Almost everyone has someone that they wish were here tonight
If the chair beside you’s empty or the bed beside you’s cold
If there’s arms you long to rest in or a hand you want to hold

It may be a long lost lover or a father’s guiding hand
Or a comrade left forever in some far-off foreign land
That certain special someone that you think of every day
The one you always turned to when the others turned away

It’s the match that can’t be argued, it’s the joke that can’t be shared
The quiet conversations though you know nobody’s there
A hunger food won’t satisfy, a wound that can’t be healed
A past that’s not forgotten and a future not revealed

Well it’s time to go our sep’rate ways, it’s almost time to part
But we carry all the special ones forever in our hearts
So banish all the fears and the failures from your mind
Just look toward the future now and join me one last time

© 2000 His Worship & the Pig

https://david-boulton.co.uk/songs/absent-friends/