The Line

Springsteen Bruce

C
I got my discharge from Fort Irwin
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took a place on the San Diego county line
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felt funny bein' a civilian again
G
it'd been some time
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my wife had died a year ago
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I was still tryin' to find my way back whole
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I went to work for the INS on the line
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with the California Border Patrol

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Bobby Ramirez was a ten year veteran
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and we became friends
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his family was from Guanajuato
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so the job it was different for him
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he said' "They risk death in the deserts and mountains"
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pay all they got to the smugglers rings,
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we send 'em home and they come right back again
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Carl, hunger is a powerful thing."

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Well I was good at doin' what I was told
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kept my uniform pressed and clean
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at night I chased their shadows
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through the arroyos and ravines

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Drug runners, farmers with their families,
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young women with little children by their sides
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come night we'd wait out in the canyons
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and try to keep 'em from crossin' the line

Well the first time that I saw her
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she was in the holdin' pen
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Our eyes met and she looked away
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then she looked back again
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her hair was black as coal
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her eyes reminded me of what I'd lost
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she had a young child cryin' in her arms
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and I asked, "Senora, is there anything I can do"

Am7
There's a bar in Tijuana
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where me and Bobby drink alongside
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the same people we'd sent back the day before
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we met there she said her name was Louisa
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she was from Sonora and had just come north
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we danced and I held her in my arms
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and I knew what I would do

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She said she had some family in Madera county
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if she, her child and her younger brother could just get through


At night they come across the levy
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in the searchlights dusty glow
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we'd rush 'em in our Broncos
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and force 'em back down into the river below
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she climbed into my truck
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she leaned towards me and we kissed
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as we drove her brothers shirt slipped open
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and I saw the tape across his chest

Am7                F
We were just about on the highway
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when Bobby's jeep come up in the dust on my right
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I pulled over and let my engine run
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and stepped out into his lights
Am7
I felt myself movin'
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felt my gun restin' 'neath my hand
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we stood there starin' at each other
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as off through the arroyo she ran

Bobby Ramirez he never said nothin'
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6 months later I left the line
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I drifted to the central valley
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and took what work I could find
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at night I searched the local bars
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and the migrant towns
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Lookin' for my Louisa
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with the black hair fallin' down