No Way Home
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A rookie’s badge doesn’t need to be cleaned
Unblighted, Unblemished
Shiny and bright
It can withstand the light of scrutiny
A rookie still believes in
The oath of integrity
A rookie still represents fairness and equality
A knight for the Lady of Justice
The one who never fails to balance the scales
A rookie stands tall, unafraid of it all
Danger, lies and corruption
Are only disruptions on the path to truth
Dreaming to be a hero someday when he’ll say
I was just doing my duty
What a thing of beauty
So precious, so rare
A cop who really cares…
But a rookie can’t stay a rookie all his life
Instead, he strives to be like the “other guys”
He can’t wait to shed his sheen of green
And be seen as one mean motor-scooter
A hard-bitten veteran of the street
Meting out justice… Yes!
But, sometimes the might of right
Just might confuse a rookie
Cause him to see the need for recompense
Entice him to use violence
To dispense his own sense of the law
He doesn’t want to rely on a trial
He wants to confront the devil
Face to face and shoot him
Dead!
But the devil doesn’t meet you on the level
Eye to eye
No, he just says, hi
Meets you by and by on the sly
In the guise of those “other guys”
The devil works undercover
Withholding the fruit of forbidden knowledge
Enticing the rookie to stay in the gray
Away from the black and white
Into the shadows where wrong and right aren’t so obvious
In the dim light a rookie loses sight of his
Oath of Integrity
Decides the law is nothing
But a distraction restricting his actions
He resents the bad guys
Who think they’re so wise
Envies how they improvise
They make him feel like a fool
So, why not bend the rules?
A rookie can make detective with
An elective approach to the law
All he has to forget is the mission to search for truth
Sell his soul for a conviction
It doesn’t matter who
He doesn’t have to think twice
Somebody has to pay the price
And none would be the wiser
He could make supervisor
If he yields to his ego
Polishes his badge with compromise
And tell a few lies
Hell, it’s easy to cheat
When justice becomes a balance sheet
Eventually, when he takes that ride
He slides down that slippery slope
Behind the cool blue wall of silence
A hard-bitten veteran of the street
Meets the devil every day
He’s not the cop to stop
If you’re in trouble and need a helping hand
Because all he sees is paperwork
Service is only a word
Protection only a projection of his self-interest
He wants to retire before he expires on the street
Responding to some senseless fight
The same one night after night
No end in sight
Yeah, he’s more than a bit jaded
His badge? More than a bit faded
Gold turned to brass a long time ago
Silver turned to chrome
This veteran doesn’t want to be a hero anymore
He just wants to go home
