Mondays is for drinking to the seldom seen kid

I've been working on a cocktail called grounds for divorce
Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Polishing a compass that I hold in my sleeve
Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Down comes him on sticks but then he kicks like a horse
Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

There's a tiny cigarette case
And the rest you can keep
And the rest you can keep
And the rest you can keep

There's a hole in my neighborhood
Down which of late I cannot help but fall
There's a hole in my neighborhood
Down which of late I cannot help but fall

Mondays is for drinking to the seldom seen kid
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

There's this whispering of jokers doing flesh by the pound
To a chorus of supposes from the little town whores
There'll be twisted karaoke at the Aniseed Lounge

And I'll bring you further roses
But it does you no good
And it does me no good
And it does you no good

There's a hole in my neighborhood
Down which of late I cannot help but fall
There's a hole in my neighborhood
Down which of late I cannot help but fall

There's a hole in my neighborhood
Down which of late I cannot help but fall
Mmm

Someday we'll be drinking with the seldom seen kid
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh


Lyrics submitted by toadtws, edited by simonatch

Grounds for Divorce Lyrics as written by Craig Lee Potter Guy Edward John Garvey

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

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Grounds for Divorce song meanings
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  • +7
    General Comment

    Good god, is this ever a song about alcoholism.

    Mondays are when the regulars at the bar drink to the narrator's son, whom he doesn't see very often because he's always at the bar.

    Unsurprisingly, his wife doesn't like that he's always there. He rarely comes home on time, either; he doesn't even use his compass/watch combo as a watch, so he never knows what time it is.

    There's fighting at this bar, too, and plenty of gambling. The "sticks" line refers to billiards. (This point is pretty clearly made in the video.) Guy has bet someone everything he has, but asks to keep a Chinese cigarette case, presumably his most prized possession.

    Can I just say that I love the chorus? What a beautiful, tortured sentence!

    In the second verse, some guys are sitting around a table playing cards ("jokers") and lending each other money ("flesh by the pound" is a reference to one of Shylock's lines in The Merchant of Venice) while some women look on and make comments. "Aniseed" is used to make absinthe.

    He may or may not have taken advantage of the ladies' availability; either way, he has plenty to apologize for. He's bought his wife roses before and he'll do it again, but his behavior doesn't change so he might as well not have bothered.

    And, depressingly, we learn that his son will be in here soon enough, following his dad's lead.

    I really, really like this song. What a stellar single!

    toadtwson February 14, 2008   Link

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