I'll Only Be Me Once - Chip Taylor

[ret5hd]

i'll only be me once
so i better find out who i am
and i will only see me once
so i better know just where i stand

and the lights all went down
in Norrtalje prison
and matthew kneels to say his prayers
but there will be no praying
for lucinda's david
david is no longer here

they put him to sleep
some six weeks ago
for taking the life of a young policeman
and he did a lot of good in his next 32 years
and lucinda prayed that would count for something

i'll only be me once
so i better find out who i am
and i will only see me once
so i better know just where i stand

i have shared the stage with bandits and heros
and some saintly poetic pornographers
i have stood shoulder to shoulder
with abusers and murders
some pushers and burglers
and con men and gamblers
ahh, fools such as i

i 'll only be me once
so i better find out who i am
and i will only see me once
so i better know just where i stand

and did you walk on by
when she cry out for protection?
or did you speak up?
were you ridiculed?
did you stand shoulder to shoulder
with some innocents on the border?
like teenager suzi diaz
who was knocked down
she was bootstomped
by some bastard in el paso
with his spitshine and his ego
and his shiny badge of gold

i'll only be me once
so i better find out who i am
and i will only see me once
so i better know just where i stand

Then there’s the case of a 15-year-old girl, Nieden Susie Diaz, an American living in El Paso, Texas, and going to school in that city. She was walking home from school when a Border Patrol agent came along and, as a judge found, “for no apparent reason knocked Nieden down to the ground and kicked her about 20 times.”
https://archives.rep-am.com/2011/05/15/disgrace-on-both-sides-of-the-border/