How can I display <?php the_meta(); ?> inside a <p> instead of a <li>?

In my theme, I am using <?php the_meta(); ?> to display a single meta text box I have at the top of each page of my theme. It is for each page’s custom intro text.

WP spits out this:

<li>
<ul class='post-meta'>
</li>
<li>
<span class='post-meta-key'>meta text box name</span>
Text from the meta text box
</li>

I’d rather have it come out simply as:

<p>Text from the meta text box</p>

…and not even display the meta text box name, because I don’t need it.

Is there a way I can make WP do this? I can kinda style it out to look like a regular paragraph, but it’s awkward. Also don’t want any ‘invisible text’ from forcing the title to not display.

T. Hanks