So these These are the hard times The ones we've Been hearing about And like in "A streetcar named desire" We're struggling To work it out And these These are the lean times The ones we never thought That we'd see And it's just like in "The grapes of wrath" Except it's happening To you and me And it feels like I'm standing Outside of myself As we act out Our desperate scenes Like watching an old-time Black and white movie Starring you and me And the feelings are so Intensely real That they don't seem Real at all I can't bear To see your pain Or to watch your teardrops fall They say They say of these hard times They kill you or They make you strong And like in "City for conquest" I'm wondering What went wrong As we go Through these hard times I can't get past My disbelief That this isn't really A very bad dream And soon I'll wake to see The end The end of these hard times Every movie's Got to end As it fades to black And the curtains close To reality Again