When the Laughter Stops

On the days when the laughter stops Replaced by the flow of tears We wonder if we will ever laugh again Throughout our coming years It happened on each and every day That one of the Kennedys were shot And when the Space Shuttle Challenger went up But come back down, it did not It happened in Memphis when Mr. King’s Dream came to a tragic end And it happened that day when my boyhood pal Had to bury his girlfriend It happened at the Olympics in Germany After all the hostages had died And happened to a Nation disgraced To learn that our president had lied It happened in a tunnel where to Princess Diana We had to say, goodbye It happens too often with school shootings Watching all those parents cry It happened when we were attacked And Twin Towers crumbled to the ground It happened to me on that night When in heaven, my father was found But, given time, the tears do dry As we learn to carry on And though the heartache does survive The laughter will return