People Like Us

Daddy settled down near some hillbilly town
God knows where, Tennessee
Built himself a church out of clapboard and birch
And my brother and me
Every single day we would kneel in the dirt for him
Every single day or he'd hit till we hurt for him
Right until the day the good Lord gave him cancer, Amen
I was five, Jonas ten

Daddy didn't need no damn pills, he decreed
If our faith would be strong
And so every day, spitting blood, he would say
We were doing it wrong
Every day we prayed, but our prayers weren't strong enough
Every day we sang, but too soft or not long enough
Till the day he crawled to the grave that we dug him and died
That's the first time I cried
But my brother, he said as he sat on the bed by my side

People like us are lucky
People like us are tough
Like it or not
We're all that we've got
But that's got to be enough
People like us have no one
No one but us, that's who
People like us have to stick to each other like glue
That's what we do

I'm sorry, but it's no excuse
I know, but I see you when you think your boy is threatened
That's totally different
Is it?

With his daddy gone we just keep keeping on
Holding fast, clinging tight
All we have is each other, that's all
People come and go
You can trust in them though, when they fade out of sight
Can't let anyone inside the walls
And through all the years doubt has never misguided us
This world is too hard
And through all the years life has never blindsided us
Can't let down our guard
All the lonely years and still nothing's divided us yet
Not yet
But we never forget
No, we never forget

People like us are different
People like us survive
We've always known
We're in this alone
And that's why we're still alive
People like us are certain
Only one thing is true
People like us do whatever we must to come through
And that's what we do
And that's what we do
People like us
People like us
People like me
People like me
And you