The Line(Album Version) - Bruce Springsteen

The Line - Bruce Springsteen
I got my discharge from fort irwin
Took a place on the san diego county line
Felt funny bein a civilian again
Itd be some time
My wife had died a year ago
I was still tryin 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 em home and they come right back again
Carl hunger is a powerful thing
Well I was good at doin what I was to
Ld kept my uniform pressed and clean
At night I chased their shadows
Thru the arroyos and ravines
Drug runners farmers with their families
Young women with little children by their sides
Come night wed wait out in the canyons
And try to keep em from crossin the line
Well the first time that I saw her
She was in the holdin 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 Id lost
She had a young child cryin in her arms
I asked senora is there anything I can do
Theres a bar in tijuana
Where me and bobby alongsidedrink
The same people wed 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 thru
At night they come across the levee
In the searchlights dusty glow
Wed rush em in our broncos
Force em back down into the river below
She climbed into my truck
She leaned toward me and we kissed
As we drove her brothers shirt slipped open
And I saw the tape across his chest
We were just about on the highway
When bobbys 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 movin
My gun restin neath my hand
We stood there starin at each other
As off thru the arroyo she ran
Bobby ramirez he never said nothin
6 months later I left the line
I drifted to the central valley
And took what work I could find
At night I searched the local bars
And the migrant towns
Lookin for my louisa
With the black hair fallin down