Between Us and Them Lyrics

1942, picking up rations for the week

A girl looks for a candy bar to find them all but gone

The cashier says, "they've traveled to brave men across the sea"

She doesn't understand

"Why aren't there any left for little girls like me?"

The radio in the back room

Tries to make sense of it all

Where the story being written

Becomes the writing on the wall

Power making promises it never meant to keep

With the ocean between us and them

Rocking her to sleep

1973, there's a record on, her daughter sings along

Mama locked on TV as she hushes her song

Far away in Vietnam concludes a senseless dispute

Mama weeps for the 20 years that we put death in a business suit

The television in the back room tries

To make sense of it all

Where the story being written

Becomes the writing on the wall

Power making promises it never meant to keep

With the ocean between us and them

Rocking her to sleep

2004, granddaughter laughing, playing war like it's a game

Flat screen blaring, channels flip, and land on something strange,

Tanks roll down the sand past crying women, wounded men

Grandma shuts them out, "you're not to watch the news again"

Then she tries to get her back

Says "come and play with me"

But she says, "I don't feel like playing anymore"

As grandma tucks her in and tries to give her some relief

She fears her baby's learned what she already knew

The truth don't always set you free

The little one in her bedroom tries

To make sense of it all

Where the story being written

Becomes the writing on the wall

Power making promises it never meant to keep

With the ocean between us and them

Rocking her to sleep