Stack of bills on her kitchen table
Out go the lights and off goes the cable
If she don't pay 'em by the 15th
And it don't look like she's gonna be able
Two mouths to feed, two jobs barely get it done
A lot on her plate for a single mom of twenty-one
From the outside looking in you'd think her world would crumble
But she keeps finding that light at the end of the tunnel
But somehow she keeps gettin' by the only soft shoulder she knows
Is on some lonely road she's going down, she's going down
Sometimes she feels like throwing in the towel
But she's not, no matter what she's gonna give her kids a better life
Than what she's got and that's what keeps her gettin' by
Friday noon, parent teacher day
It's Johnson elementary or half a shifts pay
But she wouldn't miss it for the world
She looks around at all the daddy's in the room
Wishing her kids had one of them too
This ain't how she planned it, her life's going ten different ways
It's off to little league and then to ballet
But somehow she keeps gettin' by the only soft shoulder she knows
Is on some lonely road she's going down, she's going down
And sometimes she feels like throwing in the towel
But she's not, no matter what she's gonna give her kids a better life
Than what she's got and that's what keeps her gettin' by
In every dark cloud, oh she, keeps finding that silver lining
Sometimes she feels like throwing in the towel
But she's not, no matter what she's gonna give her kids a better life
Than what she's got and that's what keeps her gettin' by
Yeah, that's what keeps her gettin' by