Paramedic Nightfall

Three in the morning,

the radio squawks Boots by the door,

thirty winters in chalk

Stretcher wheels rattling across the cold tile Another front porch where nobody

smiles I hold back the panic with steady worn hands Thirty years

watching the falling of sand

Flashing red warning

on every brick wall

Counting the breathing through every late call

Thirty years driving the edge of the wire

Pulling cold souls out of wreckage and fire

(Lord, keep 'em breathing)

I remember the faces

of who didn't stay

Carried their silences back through the gray

Coffee cup lukewarm

beside the main gear

Nobody asks what you saw in that year Just wash down the

rig

and turn back to the bay

Ready to do it again for the day

The siren gets quiet,

the highway turns still

Another dark climb up

an unyielding hill

Thirty long winters, my knuckles turned stone

Never let somebody pass all alone

Flashing red warning on every brick wall

Counting the breathing through every late call

Thirty years driving the edge of the wire

Pulling cold souls out of wreckage and fire

(still holding on)

Park the ambulance.

Cut the ignition. Thirty years on the line. (ahhhh)