One Clear Path

[Verse 1]
I kept a map of every almost,
folded small behind my eyes.
One door led to a borrowed Sunday,
one to names I never tried.
I walked their halls in borrowed hours,
learned each turn by heart and stayed;
then dust came down on all the signposts,
and the corridors gave way.

[Pre-Chorus]
The walls have lost their clever angles,
the dead ends don’t demand a name.
I can set the map beside me;
I don’t owe those roads a claim.

[Chorus]
Goodbye to the lives I didn’t choose,
to the rooms I never knew.
You can rest beyond my reaching;
I release the keys I held for you.
This labyrinth keeps getting simpler—
one clear path, one open hand.
I let the almost fade from thinking;
I am here, and here I stand.

[Verse 2]
There was a version in another town
who took the train at twenty-two;
one stayed quiet at the table,
one said what I could not say to you.
I don’t need to make them villains,
or pretend they weren’t real;
I can bless the doors behind me
without asking them to yield.

[Bridge]
No more tracing every turning,
no more living each refrain.
What I didn’t do can be unfinished
without becoming mine again.

[Final Chorus]
Goodbye to the lives I didn’t choose,
to the rooms I never knew.
You can rest beyond my reaching;
I release the keys I held for you.
This labyrinth keeps getting simpler—
one clear path, one open hand.
I let the almost fade from thinking;
I am here, and here I stand.

[Outro]
One clear path.
One open hand.