People I Have Met

I met a man who asked me for a ride.
"Where to?" I asked my solitary friend.
"To anywhere or nowhere," he replied.
"It really doesn't matter in the end."

He said that he'd been on the road a year,
just blowing with the wind from place to place.
His eyes contained a deep, unspoken fear;
a nameless terror crept across his face.

We rode together just across the state.
He went away as quickly as he came.
I wonder now what might have been his fate.
I don't believe I ever caught his name...

I meet so many people every day.
They tell me stories I will not forget.
They stay a while, and then go on their way.
I've come to love the people I have met.

I met a famous opera singer's wife
aboard a pleasure cruise to South Japan.
She told me of her desperate, lonely life,
and of her marriage to an evil man.

She said he told the most inventive lies
to cover up his numerous affairs.
With tears of sorrow welling in her eyes,
she said that once he threw her down the stairs.

"You surely ought to leave him, then," I said.
She smiled, but she failed to meet my eye.
She thought about it, then she shook her head.
"I would, but I'm not ready yet to die."

So many people pass me on my way.
Each has a story I will not forget.
Sometimes they stay a week, sometimes a day.
I really love the people I have met.

I met a girl whose smile was so bright
I had to shield my eyes to see her face.
We talked together deep into the night
of tragedies that time cannot erase.

She ran away from home two years before.
Since then, she had been living on the street.
"Dear Jesus, I can't take it anymore,"
she whispered as she stared down at her feet.

I think she smiled to try and hide the pain.
She said she sometimes wished that she was dead,
and then she disappeared into the rain.
That night, she put a bullet in her head.

I've met a lot of people in my day,
so many stories I will not forget.
No, in the end they never seem to stay,
but still I love the people I have met.

Yes, even though they always go away,
I truly love the people I have met.