Leave It Folded

Leave It Folded

Hotel lobby, bad reunion
Coffee cooling by your hand
You smile like nothing ever happened
I don't ask how well you planned
There is a tissue by the saucer
You keep folding into four
I could push until you break
But I don't want that proof anymore

Pain isn't more honest
Because somebody sees it fall

Leave it folded by the coffee
Leave it folded, you don't owe me a scene
I stopped asking your face to prove what the years already did
Leave it folded; walk away clean

You stand when the elevator opens
Leave the tissue where it lay
Not one dramatic backward glance
Not one last line to make me stay
For a second I feel cheated
Then the feeling turns to grace
Maybe respect looks like allowing
Someone to leave with their whole face

Leave it folded by the coffee
Leave it folded, you don't owe me a scene
I stopped asking your face to prove what the years already did
Leave it folded; walk away clean

That tissue stayed folded beside the cup
And for once I didn't reach for proof
I stopped asking your face to prove what the years already did
Respect was letting the doors close on the truth

Leave it folded by the saucer
Leave it folded when the elevator sings
No breakdown has to prove something mattered once
Leave it folded; leave with dignity
Leave it folded; leave with dignity

Leave It Folded