This Isn't How the Story Ends

This is a revised version of a song I posted here earlier (and played live last night). Studio recording to follow (eventually).

This Isn't How the Story Ends
by John W. Leys

A casual wave good-bye
Her other hand clinging to another
An unfaithful, unworthy rake
His tequila soaked drinking brother

The tear-stained photograph
By his fingers often traced
A mind obsessed with the whys
Of a love lost that will never be replaced

He quietly watched her walk away
The bridges as she passes they burn
The question asked; the answer known
“Will she ever to me return?”

But this isn't how the story ends

In the courtyards of academia
Too public a place to cause a scene
Quiet reasons and no desire to continue
Calls a waking from this nightmarish dream

With walls crashing down around him
Remains of a romance that should never have been
The final stab thrust through him:
“I hope I can always be your friend”

Stunned, he watches her walk away
A lesson his heart doesn't wish to learn
The question asked; the answer known
“Will she ever to me return?”

But this isn't how the story ends...

It doesn't end this way
Traveling down our lonely roads
It doesn't end in tears, nor pain
That strangles until your soul explodes

This isn't how the story ends...

A lonely letter down an endless wire
Long expected, arriving from nowhere
Detailing coldly and concisely
All the ways this perfect love they can no longer share

But this isn't how the story ends...

Facing a fork in the road,
He calmly decides to take it
Not giving her another chance
To grip his heart and break it

The phone in the cradle he lays
A chapter here is finished
So often left behind, he now leaves
His love for her never truly diminished

Stunned, she watches him walk away
Desperate to mask her panic and concern
The unspoken answer known only in his soul
“Someday, to you, I promise to return”

But this isn't where the story ends...

It doesn't end this way
Traveling down our lonely roads
It doesn't end in tears, nor pain
That strangles until your soul explodes

This isn't how the story ends...

Stunned, she watches him walk away
Desperate to mask her panic and concern
The unspoken answer known only in his soul
“Someday, to you, I promise to return”

This isn't how the story ends..