lifeblood: songs: lyrics: sorrow and joy

we've had some good times
in photographs you see us laughing and carrying on
white shirts on the clotheslines
outside flapping like misshapen flags
and where are the claims that we staked when we sank in the mire
motion suspended like stillness of birds on the wire

look in good order
from tallest to smallest dressed up for the shot
some of us got to go on with our lives
the ones that leave holes are the ones that did not
and if you believe you will see them again over jordan
and if you're not sure you will plant them a tree in the garden

sorrow and joy are not oil and water
they're hater and lover
they inform each other
attract and repel
make us sick make us well
in the end we must hold them together
ah ha

on the day that president reagan was shot
you skipped home from school thinking this was good news
we surrounded you horrified
broke you to tears
but we'd force fed you politics beyond your years
and after you died
it was me who had cried at the memory
some things would fade
but that image is clear as the day to me

sorrow and joy are not oil and water
they're hater and lover
they inform each other
attract and repel
(through good times)
make us sick make us well
(bad times)
in the end we must hold them together

now you're a still life
a rose on the table
forever a child
my desperate desire just to ask you some questions
your school picture staring back at me a smile
plays on your face
like the best of the times that we knew
and how the negative lights up the darkness in you

sorrow and joy are not oil and water
they're hater and lover
they inform each other
attract and repel
(through good times)
make us sick make us well
(bad times)
sorrow and joy are not oil and water
sorrow and joy are not oil and water
(through good times bad times)
they're hater and lover
(hold them together)
they inform each other
sorrow and joy are not oil and water
in the end we must hold them together

words and music by emily saliers