Plain and Simple Ending
Words and Music by Tom May


(Originally released on the Iris Records album. Vignette (out of print) 1978)


Lost in some dark alleyway, not knowin’ where to turn
I took my turn, at lying on the pavement
Cold and damp without a dime
Without a place to go
The snow was cold, and getting’ colder every moment

Then from the wings of my sorry stage, she entered from the left
She took my hand, and led me out of danger
Fed me well and kept me warm
Against the chilly dawn
That seemed far away, but was comin’ ever closer

She knew the day would come, when I would have to travel roads
That have no end, and have scarcely no beginnings
Yet she asked for nothin’ more but that the time that we would share
Would be as friends
With a plain and simple ending

Meanin’ well and doin’ right
Are often different things
I meant no harm by the truth she wasn’t hearin’
her rooms were dark this morning, and what was left unsaid
Had caused more pain
Than all the words that I was sayin’.

Yesterday I ran away from what she could have been
Not as a friend, not even as her lover
Plain and simple endings only come in fairy tales
I found no way
I could deceive her any longer

©1976 Blue Vignette Publishing, ASCAP