The Line

I got my discharge from Fort Irwin
Took a place on the San Diego county line
Felt funny being a civilian again
It'd been some time
My wife had died a year ago
I was still trying to find my way back whole
Went to work for the INS on the line
With the California border patrol

Bobby Ramirez was a ten-year veteran
We became friends
His family was from Guanajuato
So the job, it was different for him

He said, "They risk death in the deserts and mountains
Pay all they got to the smugglers rings
We send them home, and they come right back again
Carl, hunger is a powerful thing."

Well, I was good at doing what I was told
Kept my uniform pressed and clean
At night I chased their shadows
Through the arroyos and ravines

Drug runners, farmers with their families
Young women with little children by their sides
Come night we'd wait out in the canyons
And try to keep them from crossing the line

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

There's a bar in Tijuana
Where me and Bobby drink alongside
The same people we'd sent back the day before
We met there, she said her name was Louisa

She was from Sonora and had just come north
We danced, and I held her in my arms
And I knew what I would do
She said she had some family in Madera county

If she, her child and younger brother could just get through
At night, they come across the levee
In the searchlight's dusty glow
We'd rush them in our Broncos

Force them back down into the river below
She climbed into my truck
She leaned toward me and we kissed
As we drove, her brother's shirt slipped open
And I saw the tape across his chest
We were just about on the highway
When Bobby's jeep come up in the dust on my right
I pulled over and let my engine run and stepped out into his lights

I felt myself moving
My gun resting beneath my hand
We stood there staring at each other
As off through the arroyo she ran

Bobby Ramirez, he never said nothing
Six months later, I left the line
I drifted to the central valley
And took what work that I could find
At night I searched the local bars
And the migrant towns
Looking for my Louisa
With the black hair falling down