I met our childhood enemy the other day
He said he had something to show me
He led me back the long road to his father's house
We found his father in the library, drinking
I knew his father always hated my people
I was embarrassed when he stood up to greet me
He put his hand on my shoulder and apologized
I thought that he would never stop crying

I asked our enemy on the ride back home
If there was something I'd forgotten
He said our childhood was a certain kind of act
And I was trapped in a vanishing proscenium

When you try too hard, you'll find--you're surrounded by old enemies
Faces soft and kind, memories of better days
When we used to fight, but it didn't mean a thing
Let's go back tonight, let's recover everything

Now all your wives and husbands
Can't relate to what you've been through
Cause they have an understanding
Built on the worlds they grew up against
But we conducted our lives on a secret stage
All of our actions had a double meaning
Read from a script nobody else could know about
We learned the finer points of secret-keeping

My best friend's wife believes it's just depression
How do we help him break through
He sits and stares sometimes and we can't reach him
What do you think he might do
Sometimes I can't complete a conversation

At first I was quick to get my feelings hurt
It took me some time to get used to it
It's only later I found out that it was all for show
And no one really meant a thing they were saying
Even so there was something really valuable there
The hate and friendship were so much simpler
Without the messy complications of their real equivalents
It was a life I could not just abandon