Shackles

I've done it now. Man, when I screw up,
I just have to do it big.
You know you're too good at being bad
When the cop dances a jig.
Alone in cuffs and listening to the radio,
Listening to the dispatchers chuckle,
Mad because I'm caught, afraid I'm no more,
And I want a pull off a cig.

Okay, they're walking back to the car,
They want me to tell what I know.
But the people they want can't do my time instead,
Just so I can walk, or go home.
They're folks just like me, families and all,
Problems and bills and lives.
A cop's shutting the squad door, red with anger,
And as for a cigarette, he said "Hell, no."

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