Goodbye to the Lives I Didn't

[Verse 1]
I kept a map of every almost,
Folded small behind my eyes.
One road led to a rented kitchen,
One to someone else’s life.
I walked their halls in passing,
Learned the doors by touch and name;
Every turn became a question
I could never quite reclaim.

[Pre-Chorus]
Now the walls have lost their angles,
Now the signs have worn away.
I don’t have to solve the passage
To leave it where it lay.

[Chorus]
Goodbye to the lives I didn’t choose,
To the rooms I’ll never enter.
This labyrinth is simpler now—
A few clear paths, a quiet center.
I let those other selves grow small,
No more rehearsing every door.
Goodbye to what I might have been;
I don’t need to carry them anymore.

[Verse 2]
There’s no secret at the dead end,
Just dust along the stone.
I stop asking who I’d be there;
I come back to my own.

[Bridge]
The maze can keep its vanished turns.
I have a hand to hold: my own.

[Final Chorus]
Goodbye to the lives I didn’t choose,
To the rooms I’ll never enter.
This labyrinth is simpler now—
A few clear paths, a quiet center.
I let those other selves grow small,
No more rehearsing every door.
Goodbye to what I might have been;
I don’t need to carry them anymore.