I remember pleading with you,
"There's still time for you to stop,
You can always make a living,
You don't have to be a cop!"
But you closed your eyes to logic,
Shined the badge upon your chest,
Said you did it, "For the action"
And this city had the best.
Brave and daring, best describe you,
Young and handsome, lots of nerve,
Never shrinking from your duty,
Trying to "protect and serve".
A hold-up in progress,
Responding to callers,
That said, "Shots were fired".
Back in the parking lot,
Two suspects running,
Backups got one of them,
Run 'till you're tired.
For five or six blocks
Down the sidewalk you chase him,
Soon you're upon him,
The subject is down.
You wrestle the gun from
The thrashing assailant,
You put on the handcuffs,
You take him downtown.
And you're walking now with haste,
Past the backstreet's grisly canyons,
Filled with rats and human waste.
Now two in the morning,
Your shift's nearly over,
You've had your excitement,
It's time to check in.
You canvass the area,
Run off the prostitutes,
Warn all the winos
You'll be back again.
Whiskey bottles, wrapped in paper,
Tell the tale of night-before
Drunken beggars, numbed with bourbon,
‘Till their anguish throbbed no more
Someone’s yelling in the alley!
You must thwart the wild attack!
Next you feel the burning metal!
From the switchblade in your back!
Put there by a wasted druggy!
‘Needed money for some fun!
Had to rob a liquor store and
Took your life to get a gun!
Now you lay there in the moonlight
As the gutter fills with blood,
Cold and silent, staring, lifeless
Face half-buried in the mud
Let me turn the hands of time back,
Make you listen to my plea?
Find another occupation,
Be a Teacher, sail the sea.
Maybe I was not convincing,
‘Should have laid it on the line!
Now that you are gone forever,
I just know the blame is mine!
As I reach to touch your body,
Someone who was part of me,
See my fingers pass right through you,
Oh-My-God, it’s really me!
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