It’s 3:00 A. M. , my thirteenth call
A place called Crazy Joe’s Pool Hall
A fight, a knife, a man is down
It happens in this part of town

My backup’s comin’ from the jail
Was bookin’ in a drunk female
And me, I’m riding all alone
When I arrive I’m on my own

I’m fairly close, about a mile
If I was smart I’d stall awhile
But as I always do with fights
I come in quiet - cut the lights

A crowd is huddled round the door
Near all of them I’ve popped before
Ain’t one of them cares much for me
Most hopin’ I’ll go down, you see

I open up the door a crack
Some wanted guys run out the back
I see the young dude lying there
With blood just pourin’ from his hair

I kneel beside him –find he’s dead
Just then a pool cue cracked my head
Fell in the blood to my alarm
The second blow breaks my left arm

The pool hall turns from red to black
I struggle to get off my back
Can’t count ‘em all, my vision’s blurred
What’s happening? My thoughts are slurred

I manage to get on my knees
I try to focus – then I freeze
I see now that there’s only one
The problem is he’s got my gun

He shoves the gun inside his belt
Then grabs the cue with which he dealt
The blows that brought me to the ground
And swings again, a swooshing sound

He misses and I’m on my feet
I’m backing up, the wall I meet
He’s pointing at me with a grin
My arm bone’s stickin’ through the skin

He’s reckless now - he comes too near
So big and drunk he has no fear
The years have slowed my uppercut
The first one catches in his gut

There’s vomit drippin’ from his chin
He comes for me, I swing again
This time I feel him lift a bit
My shoulder’s wet with bloody spit

I kick his knee and hear it snap
He crumbles, reaches for his lap
But I reach too, this time I won
I manage to retrieve my gun

He dares me shoot and tries to stand
I say I will and call his hand
I guess he sees it in my eyes
And knows I’ll kill him if he tries

I put my back against the wall
And hear my backup’s siren call
A minute and he’s through the door
By then we both are on the floor

The judge he gives him eighty years
The dude looks back at me and sneers
I’ll kill you cop, when I get out
I’ll find you then, you have no doubt.

I tell him, Son, I’ll try to wait
But I don’t think that it’s my fate
When you get out - to be alive
I’ve been a cop since sixty- five.