Mister State Trooper

Work for the state out of Perrineville. Barracks 8. Been a sergeant for as long as I can remember. Do the best job I can. Honest work.

New Jersey Turnpike, ridin’ on a wet night

I got a brother named Franky.

’neath the refin’ry’s glow

And Franky ain’t no good.

Out where the great black rivers flow

From the time we were boys, it was always the same. Whenever I got that call on the shortwave, I knew. Franky’s neck deep in somethin’, it’s spillin’ over and I gotta go.

Licence? Registration? I ain’t got none

If it was anybody else, I’d cuff ’em up and throw ’em in a cell. Put him straight away. But when it’s your brother, sometimes you look the other way.

I got a clear conscience ’bout the things that I done

Me and Franky, laughin’ and drinkin’. Nothing feels better than blood on blood. Taking turns dancing with Maria as the band played “Night of the Johnstown Flood.”

Please don’t stop me, please don’t stop me

The army. ’65. Franky left, I stayed. Got a farm deferment, tryin’ to keep it together. Prices were fallin’ so fast it was like we were bein’ robbed. The state needed cops, not crops.

Maybe you got a kid

Franky came back in ’68, and he still hadn’t learned a damn thing. He’d show up, and it was always the same. Laughin’, drinkin’, the smell of whiskey in the air. Blood on blood. Ain’t no better feeling in the world. Tryin’ to catch him when he strayed. Like any brother would.

maybe you got a pretty wife

The night was like any other. Quarter to nine. Trouble down at a roadhouse out on the Michigan Line. A kid bleedin’ out, a girl cryin’. It was Frank they said.

The only thing that I got’s been both’rin’ me my whole life

Lights. Gas. Siren. Felt the car eat up the miles like it was nothing. The road was a blur. The speedometer’s needle buried. I didn’t care. I’d been through this too many times. It ends here.

Mister state trooper, please don’t stop me

By the time I got to Willow Bank, I saw the Buick. Ohio plates. Franky at the wheel. I didn’t stop. Just kept my foot on the pedal, right up on his bumper, pushin’. He couldn’t outrun me. Couldn’t outrun what was comin’ for him. But damn if he didn’t try.

Please don’t stop me, please don’t stop me

I chased him through them dark county roads, the trees on both sides like phantoms watchin’ us. I pushed the car harder, tried to close the gap. Didn’t matter. Franky wasn’t lookin’ to be caught.

In the wee, wee hours

We came up on the sign — Canadian border, five miles. It might as well have been a thousand. I pulled off to the side of the highway and watched his tail lights fade into the dark.

your mind get hazy

Nothin’ feels better than blood on blood.

Radio relay towers lead me to my baby

Could still hear the hum of the engine, still feel the heat of the road beneath me. “Night of the Johnstown Flood” playing in my head.

The radio’s jammed up with talk show stations

I catch him when he’s strayin’.

It’s just talk, talk, talk, talk, till you lose your patience

Like any brother would.

Mister state trooper, please don’t stop me

Man turns his back on his family.

Hey, somebody out there. Listen to my last prayer

Well, he ain’t no good.

Hiho silver-o, deliver me from nowhere

He ain’t no good.