Time, As a Symptom Joanna Newsom

(Mourning Dove calls)

Time passed hard
And the task was the hardest thing she'd ever do
But she forgot
The moment she saw you

So it would seem to be true:
When cruel birth debases, we forget
When cruel death debases
We believe it erases all the rest
That precedes

But stand brave, life-liver
Bleeding out your days
In the river of time
Stand brave:
Time moves both ways

In the nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life;
The nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life

The moment of your greatest joy sustains:
Not axe nor hammer
Tumor, tremor
Can take it away, and it remains
It remains