Bruce Springsteen — Balboa Park

[Verse 1] He lay his blanket underneath the freeway As the evening sky grew dark Took a sniff of toncho from his coke can And headed through Balboa Park [Verse 2] Where the men in their Mercedes Come nightly to employ In the cool San Diego evening The services of the border boys [Verse 3] He grew up near the Zona Norte With the hustlers and smugglers he hung out with He swallowed their balloons of cocaine Brought them across to the Twelfth Street strip [Verse 4] Sleeping in a shelter If the night got too cold Running from the migra Of the border patrol [Verse 5] Past the salvage yard across the train tracks And in through the storm drain They stretched their blankets out beneath the freeway And each one took a name [Verse 6] There was X-man and Cochise Little Spider, his sneakers covered in river mud They come north to California End up with the poison in their blood [Verse 7] He did what he had to for the money Sometimes he sent home what he could spare The rest went to high-top sneakers and toncho And jeans like the gavachos wear [Verse 8] One night the border patrol swept Twelfth Street A big car come fast down the boulevard Spider stood caught in its headlights Got hit and went down hard [Verse 9] As the car sped away, Spider held his stomach Limped to his blanket beneath the underpass Lie there tasting his own blood on his tongue Closed his eyes and listened to the cars rushing by so fast