Lyrics
I met him in a small cafe
With a view of the bayside beach
With the girl he conversed he was clearly in love
So I thought it my duty to teach
I approached his perch and I shook his hand
And the hand of his lady too
I told him why I had come to him
“I have something to say to you”
“When I was young I loved and lost
But I suppose I was deceived
For I must have thought that I would be aware
If she was soon to leave”
“The difference my man between you and you and me
Is that your eyes show no dread
Of losing your woman to a pile of gold
With the form and the face of a friend”
Quite puzzled at first his face did seem
And I suppose it was rightfully so
For why had he just been lectured
By a man he did not even know
While strange it was and uncomfortably so
He for some reason looked not away
Perhaps it was pity, I may never know
But regardless he decided to stay
‘Twas many a year ‘for I saw him again
Perhaps twenty or thirty or more
Til the woman he loved took the form of his wife
And the first of their heirs had been born
When out on a walk I saw him quite clear
On a bench by the courthouse he sat
He remembered my face after all of those years
As I approached him and took off my hat
He told me of family, his children, his wife
And me of my newfound success
I made note to myself of the joy in his life
As I departed and wished him the best
For several years following, I went without word
From him or his wife or at all
Til I found him years later when I passively heard
He’d been desperately trying to call
Now the tone of his voice was shrouded in fear
For he had no one left to procure
The woman he loved had a sickness severe
That the doctors were useless to cure
So through my wealth and my fortune I endowed their brave souls
With all of the science of men
But despite my best efforts I failed them all
And I let love go dark once again
Once that woman was gone the time was not far
For her husband to join her at home
Stronger I suppose was their connection of heart
Then even I could have known
And as he lay dying, he stared in my eyes
And inquired of me "is this the end?"
I looked at him gently and began to weep,
"quite the opposite my friend”
But his eyes showed confusion, as one lost at sea
As if he could not fathom why,
“Tell me, from whence come your tears for me?
I'm not afraid to die”
And that was the last that I heard from that man
Before his body was taken away
And I still sometimes wonder if it may have been best
To have ended it some other way
I grasped him by the shoulders
and I held him, “don't you see?
It could have been me
It could have been me…”
