First Call

Beginning of my shift

Brand new patch on my sleeve

Tones echo through the E R

No time to hesitate

Hollow point 9 mil

Point blank range

Now I'm on my knees

In a pool of your own blood

Red covered my hands

No amount of water

Could ever wash off

I was just twenty years old

Crowd and rush hour traffic All around us

Horns blowing and people talking

But I heard nothing

Just that high car chime

Dinging steady time

And the sound of you

Gasping for one more breath

Your chest fighting under my hands

I hear that car chime in the dark

Like it’s still stuck in my ears

Thirty eight years gone by now

And I still fall apart

Smallest spark and I’m right back there

I did all that I knew

But I couldn’t pull you through

I swore on your name right then and there

I’d never fail anyone again

Radio cracked

But the words ran thin

Counting compressions

I lost my count

Sweat in my eyes

Smell of metal and rain

Med evac 5 miles out

Too far for us

Your fingers twitched when I called your name

Thought I caught one more breath you drew

Time wrote a line that I couldn’t cross

They called your T-O-D

But it branded me too

I hear that car chime in the dark

Like it’s still stuck in my ears

Thirty eight years gone by now

And I still fall apart

Smallest spark and I’m right back there

I did all that I knew

But I couldn’t pull you through

I swore on your name right then and there

I’d never fail anyone again

Every stranger on a stretcher

Every hand that slips in mine

You’re the shadow standing over me

You’re the clock I can’t rewind

So I double-check the airway

Count the rhythm in my head (in my head)

You taught me how a promise

Can outlive the dead

I hear that car chime in the dark

Like it’s still stuck in my ears

Thirty eight years gone by now

And I still fall apart

Smallest spark and I’m right back there

I did all that I knew

And I carry that truth

I whisper your name now and then

Every heartbeat I help defend

Is me keeping that promise

I’ll never fail again