Can you keep a secret? Have you ever — intentionally or not — spilled the beans (when you should’ve stayed quiet)?

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What’s a secret between friends,

Or enemies?

If the secret’s only in abeyance,

By one party or the other.

It makes no difference,

It’s just another prisoner’s dilemma.

And  a case of bad cop, good cop,

Played all over.

For the other party’s at fault is the claim.

And you ask, ‘How else could they have known?”

An ill-kept secret is no mystery at all.

And a confidence that benefits one,

But causes the other immense harm,

Is not a pact,

But a travesty.

—Linus Fernandes