So what's the answer?

A very poetic answer to a prosaic question. Are the lost people lost in life, or lost to us (i.e. they are dead or have left us)? I wondered whether 'The lost people' should be 'Those of us who are lost are indeed lost' or 'Those we have lost are gone forever''?? But then, that might be contradicted by the next line, that we will meet them again.