This is from the Ghost of Tom Joad album. Hope it's more or less correct.
The Line - Bruce Springsteen
C
I got my discharge from Fort Irwin
F C
took a place on the San Diego county line
F C
felt funny bein' a civilian again
G
it'd been some time
C
my wife had died a year ago
F C
I was still tryin' to find my way back whole
F C
I went to work for the INS on the line
G C
with the California Border Patrol
F
Bobby Ramirez was a ten year veteran
C
and we became friends
F C
his family was from Guanajuato
G
so the job it was different for him
C
he said' "They risk death in the deserts and mountains"
F C
pay all they got to the smugglers rings,
F C
we send 'em home and they come right back again
G C
Carl, hunger is a powerful thing."
F C
Well I was good at doin' what I was told
F C
kept my uniform pressed and clean
F C
at night I chased their shadows
G
through the arroyos and ravines
C
drug runners, farmers with their families,
F C
young women with little children by their sides
F C
come night we'd wait out in the canyons
G C
and try to keep 'em from crossin' the line
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Well the first time that I saw her
F C
she was in the holdin' pen
F C
Our eyes met and she looked away
G
then she looked back again
C
her hair was black as coal
F C
her eyes reminded me of what I'd lost
F
she had a young child cryin' in her arms
C G C
and I asked, "Senora, is there anything I can do"
Am7
There's a bar in Tijuana
F
where me and Bobby drink alongside
C G C
the same people we'd sent back the day before
Am7 F
we met there she said her name was Louisa
C G
she was from Sonora and had just come north
Am7 F
we danced and I held her in my arms
G C
and I knew what I would do
F C
she said she had some family in Madera county
G C
if she, her child and her younger brother could just get through
At night they come across the levy
F C
in the searchlights dusty glow
F C
we'd rush 'em in our Broncos
G
and force 'em back down into the river below
C
she climbed into my truck
F C
she leaned towards me and we kissed
F C
as we drove her brothers shirt slipped open
G C
and I saw the tape across his chest
Am7 F
We were just about on the highway
C G C
when Bobby's jeep come up in the dust on my right
Am7 F
I pulled over and let my engine run
C G
and stepped out into his lights
Am7
I felt myself movin'
F G C
felt my gun restin' 'neath my hand
F C
we stood there starin' at each other
G C
as off through the arroyo she ran
Bobby Ramirez he never said nothin'
F C
6 months later I left the line
F C
I drifted to the central valley
G
and took what work I could find
C
at night I searched the local bars
F
and the migrant towns
C
Lookin' for my Louisa
G C
with the black hair fallin' down
