~~Fear~~
At the hour of eleven,
the
night shift all parade
Hear the latest in the world of crooks,
their current tools of trade
It's not an hour great for working,
the
mood is hardly bright
Even so one of the officers,
is not
himself tonight.
He's seated in the middle row,
the one who bears a frown,
Hardly taking in the briefing,
fights
the urge to look around
He's not the rookie, he's more
senior,
and twenty years ago or more
He
joined a job he dearly loved,
on
which
he'd never shut the door.
To the others he's an okay guy,
respected by his peers
The real type of copper,
been on the
road for years
Never backs down when things get ugly,
nor shows fear to any man
The
kind
of guy you like beside you,
if the
shit
should hit the fan.
But to himself he's just a
coward,
good at building a facade
He's done this in the last few months,
but God it's getting hard
The job's now a lifelong sentence,
a
single shift feels like a year
The constant partner nowadays,
is
simply
feeling sickly fear.
He doesn't know the reasons
why,
he's in such a sorry state
There's been no loss within the ranks,
nor injuries of late
No abuse of booze or substance,
no
drastic changes in his life
His marriage very stable,
and such a
loving wife.
But he can't explain the
feeling
that chills him to the bone,
The sickness in his stomach,
the
fear of
the unknown
The belief that at the next call,
his
reactions will at last
Show that
he's lost his nerve entirely,
and
he'll
come apart so fast.
But his younger partner watches
him,
and later on he'll say
"What
would I give to be like him,
could
that
be me one day?"
No job ever seems to
faze him,
he's up there with the
best
The only they all aspire to,
respected by the rest.
And later on the night's
end
slowly dissipates the pain
Another
shift is over,
his nerve held in
check
again
But he knows relief is short
lived,
again he'll have to fight,
The nervous fear and tension
that
he'll meet again tonight.
~~Author Unknown~~
