Joy Deep as Sorrow

I want good to come after me
Half as relentlessly
As trouble does … like a curse
I want health to protect me
Invade and infect me
Like disease does … but in reverse
I want sweetness and light
To keep me up all night
Happy hours passing without sleep
As sharp as a knife
I want love in this life
To cut me fast … cut me deep
I’d like to see good fortune
Paint a target on my back
I want laughter to stage
A surprise attack
One fine day
Maybe two or three in a row
Blessings lined up
Waiting to become the status quo
I don’t want to be unfaithful
But I really want to know
Is there a joy deep as sorrow?
The story is told
From the days of old
About the sad fate of humankind
How at some prenatal stage
Or accountable age
We’re all hell-bent in heart and mind
We used to call it sin
But now we’re not so sure
Seems when everybody’s God
Then there’s no need for a cure … or …
One fine day
Maybe two or three in a row
Blessings lined up
Ready to become the status quo
I don’t want to be unfaithful
But I really want to know
Is there a joy deep as sorrow?
Joy deep as sorrow
Pleasure as potent as pain
Stable as an earthquake
Harmless as a hurricane
Inmates freed from the asylum
At long last everybody driven sane
By a joy as deep as sorrow
What if ecstasy
Reinvented me
So little children would point and smile
What if misery
Were like the lottery
All my losing tickets in a pile
An avalanche of platitudes
Better left unsaid
When that which does not kill me
Makes me wish that I was dead
Every day that I am walking
It’s always something new
I want to step in a pile of good
And leave it on my shoe …
One fine day
Maybe two or three in a row
One fine day
A joy deep as sorrow