Shamrock

She met him after summer school

At a Hiawatha bus stop

In a knockoff Celtics jacket

Said his crew, they call him Shamrock

His mother died when he was five

And his dad's some sort of drug cop

But the apple sometimes rolls way down the hill

Sabrina claimed the Southside

But really she's from Richfield

These invisible divisions

Never seemed like such a big deal

She's been working at a wine bar

Making jokes about the mouthfeel

She sometimes takes twenties from the till

Unprovoked and unadorned

White t-shirts and cutoff shorts

Summer takes a shapeless form

After dark in Powderhorn

If you pool your funds together

You're barely ever broke

Walking up to SA to get smokes

In the spring they found some shambles

In the south suburban sprawl

Sabrina's taking classes

Shamrock's hanging drywall

But his fingernails keep falling off

And he comes home mean and sore

Every day he hates it more and more

And the years go by and life goes on

Nothing really happens

School became a drag

So she went back to be a waitress

There isn't much to sit on

When the old crew comes to visit

So they all get high and pass out on the floor

Then Shamrock just stops working

He said it's such a meager pittance

Once they take the taxes out

It's barely even worth it

The TVs set to static

There's drums off in the distance

Their daughter's sleeping in a dresser drawer

Unprescribed and unfulfilled

Applications special skills

She admit she sometimes still

Takes twenties from the till

Shamrock's sick of trying to smile

When he's holding in the smoke

Got talking to this guy he sort of knows

A call came in this evening

From the county credit union

Two guys with masks and pistols

Crashed in as they were closing

By the time the cruisers came around

They'd grabbed the cash and scattered

But the cameras always capture all the action

So a trooper pulled them over

On a vehicle description

At a Hampton Inn in Hudson

About a mile into Wisconsin

When the footage ran on News at 9

She could tell that it was Shamrock

In that ragged satin jacket that says Boston

Unrehearsed and unprepared

To be the only one who cares

For a daughter who keeps

Asking about her father

They pooled their funds together

But somehow she's still broke

Walking up to Speedway to get smokes

Walking up to Speedway to get smokes