The Wedding

It was a winter Sunday in the centre of town
In the middle of the advent madness
Fading daylight, gusts of rain
Christmas carols playing on the brain - and on the radio
I could see the other guests arriving
In their Range Rovers and MG midgets
Sprayed lime green and vomit orange
Princess Di lookalikes in county twinsets
And down-at-heel Cambridge playboys
Wearing Moss Bros suits and hand-me-down sports jackets
The theatrical profession at prayer... and I felt so out of place
Heads were turning and the whispering spread
As you stood in the aisle staring straight ahead
Like Lazarus risen up from the dead in a formal morning coat;
Prayers were offered and a lesson was read
As one or two crocodile sniffles were shed
And somebody whispered 'Doesn't she just look wonderful'
With a dry crack in the voice
But I felt like a leper and a traitor too
To everything we once knew was true
You avoided my eye and I knew that you knew
And something in my heart screamed no...

Because it isn't the bride that I wanna kiss
It isn't your friendship I'm gonna miss
And it's not that I wanted a life like this
But I'm doing fine... I'm doing fine

Still I remembered all the places and people we'd known
All the summers we spent on that disused aerodrome
All the double-edged jokes in our private code
In our very own private language
And if I could still ride my bike home across that windswept runway
Well I'd do it again today...
And now here we were all these years later
Still living in the shadow of a mushroom cloud
As we mumbled the Lord's prayer together
And asked for the peace which passeth all understanding;
And if I sound bitter it's because I'm alone
Under alien colours, in an alien zone
And though I know the language well it isn't my own
And I really don't belong here

Because it isn't the bride that I wanna kiss
And it isn't your friendship I'm gonna miss
And it's not that I wanted a life like this
But a part of my childhood died
No, it isn't the bride that I wanna kiss

It isn't your friendship I'm gonna miss
It's not that I wanted it to end like this
With water and wine, water and wine...

Well I guess I'm just paying my respects to you
For the sake of who we used to be...