The Line

[Verse] 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 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 [Outro] 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