[Part I - The Given Ending] I sweep through the rows when the picture is over. The hero has learned what the suffering was for. The last piece of music makes loss sound like payment for something the ending was holding in store. I wanted that order. I stayed for the credits, though I've seen this ending a dozen times through. It's easy to leave when the hurt has a purpose. The doors let me out; the purpose stays in the room. [Refrain I] After the ending, the night makes no reply. I bring it a question it doesn't know to deny. The wanting is human. The silence is not a lie. They meet without agreeing in the fact that I'm alive. [Part II - The Offered Escape] I could call the silence a message too deep for me. I could call the question a fault I should lose. One gives me an answer I haven't encountered. One takes away the one who wanted to choose. I stand by the bins with a bag full of endings. The streetlamp is doing what streetlamps are for. It shows me the curb. There is nothing defective. The extra demand is that I wanted more. [Refrain II] After the ending, the night makes no reply. I will not make it promise. I will not teach the want to die. The wanting is human. The silence is not a lie. Neither gets the final word just because I'm tired. [Part III - Without Settlement] The key still fits. There is tomorrow's showing. I'll watch for the moment the music makes sense. I can love what a story gives people for an evening without making the world agree to its events. A tune comes back as I turn from the entrance. I hum it because I still want to sing. It isn't the answer that makes the night worth asking. It doesn't have to settle anything. [Final Refrain] After the ending, no hidden reason arrives. The question comes with me, not smaller, not satisfied. The wanting is human. The night is still the night. I leave with nothing settled, and a tune I haven't finished. [Coda] Tomorrow is not an explanation. The singing is not a proof. I have not made peace with the silence. I have not given it all of the room.
