[Verse 1]
You're browsing in a secondhand bookstore
And you see him in nonfiction V through Y
He looks up from World War II
And then you catch him, catch him, you catch in his eye

[Verse 2]
So you quickly turn away your wishful stare
And take a sudden interest in your shoes
If you only had the courage, but you don't
He turns and leaves and you both lose

[Chorus]
And you think about the people that you never get to love
It's not as if you even had the chance
So many worth a second life
But rarely do you get a second glance
Until fate cuts in on your dance

[Verse 3]
And you'll see him on a train that you've just missed
At a bus stop where your bus will never stop
Or in a passing Buick
When you've been pulled over by a traffic cop

[Verse 4]
Or you'll share an elevator, just you two
And rise in solemn silence to your floor
Like the fool you are, you get off
And he leaves your life behind a closing door
[Chorus]
And you think about the people that you never get to love
The poem you intended to begin
The saddest words that anyone has ever said
Are "Lord, what might have been?"
But no one said you get to win

[Verse 5]
Still, you're never gonna miss what you don't know
And you don't know who you'll meet at half past three
It could be a total stranger
Who looks just a little bit like me

[Outro]
One of the people that you never get to love
One of the people that you never get to love
The people that you never get to love