Oh, The People You'll meet!!!

Oh the people you'll meet!

Another Patrick Murray original.

Not written by Dr. Seuss, that's for sure.


Oh the people you'll meet!
As you venture down the stairs,
off of the street, and go underground.
Follow the shaking floors, and
the roaring sound

step, sniffing, through the el train door,
deciding to sit down if it doesn't smell like pee or ass
or something more.

Oh the people you'll meet!
sitting on the shiny train
trying not to make eye contact - it's all in vain
Crazy doesn't need to look you in the eyes
To be crazy.
It's always a surprise
The people that you meet.

Most are harmless, headed to work
or to catch a plane
Some are unwashed
a few are insane.

The troubled are the ones that stand out, 'tis true
As being different than me and you.
Oh the people you'll meet!
that serve to remind you that your life is sweet

Because you're not talking to yourself
or to someone I can't see
Or screaming at a wall
Or sitting in your pee

You're not preaching, preaching, all the time
about the evils of going to work
You're not panhandling for a dime
Or changing seats at every stop
or being harassed by a transit cop
Because you travel with nine trash bags full of things
not described in childrens songs
at least not any song that we sing

You're not a grown man who thinks he's a spy
talking into a toy wrist communicator with a
happy gleam in your eye

You're not a one-eyed screamer, demanding my seat
Because you're unstable, you yell
and then you prop up your feet
after I let you sit down, but I was too slow
So you continue to berate me as the train starts to go.

Oh the people you'll meet!
Oh the people you'll smell!
Oh the people you wish you could avoid
When you're riding on the El.

But I still wish them well.