Lyrics
[Verse 1 | Sparse Piano, Low Strings] Three roads beneath the same old trees, three shadows waiting at the gate. I thought that knowing what I wanted would arrive before too late. One knows where I hide the anger, never asks me to explain. He can sit beside the silence without trying to give it a name. One would tear the doors wide open, laugh and dare me not to run. Makes the world seem almost harmless when I've forgotten there is sun. And one was raised among the ruins, knows what family can demand. There are things we never speak of because we already understand. [Pre-Chorus] No one told me love could divide without anybody doing wrong. No one taught me how to leave when every road feels like a home. [Chorus] How do I choose what the heart must keep when nothing here was ever false? If I reach for one pair of hands, I know exactly what it costs. There'll be a life I never lived, a room I never learned by heart, someone waking years from now with my absence in the dark. I used to fear what love could take. Now I know. It asks me to take part. [Pre-Chorus] But no one has become the villain. No betrayal clears the way. Only three unfinished stories and one life I cannot split three ways. [Chorus] How do I choose what the heart must keep when nothing here was ever false? If I reach for one pair of hands, I know exactly what it costs. There'll be a life I never lived, a room I never learned by heart, someone waking years from now with my absence in the dark. I used to fear what love could take. Now I know. It asks me to take part. [Interlude | Nearly Spoken, No Percussion] Maybe somewhere there are versions of me who never had to choose. One stayed where she was understood. One ran until the sky grew wide. One kept the promises our families taught us to survive. Sometimes I envy them. Sometimes I think they envy me. [Outro | Very Quiet] I cannot give three people forever. I cannot make tenderness fair. And keeping everyone beside me would only mean I never truly chose to be there. So forgive me if my hands shake. Forgive me if I take too long. There are wounds made by cruelty. There are others made by moving on. [Instrumental Rise | Strings, Distant Harmonies]