You Can’t Push A Bullet Back Into A Gun!

A few years ago I was in the USC medical center for some tests. I was put in a ward next to a young man who was handcuffed to his bed. He looked over at me and said, “Yo’ Pops, can I have some of your water?”

I said, “First, don’t call me Pops, I may not as young as you, but I can still beat your ass!”. He smiled weakly, whille bandaged over much of his upper body, and asked politely, “Can I please have some of your water, sir?” Just as I was about to give it to him, a large male nurse took the glass out of my hand, glared at him and said, “You know you’re not allowed to have any water…because of your gunshot wounds!”

I asked him what happened? He said he was a gangbanger and he was in a shootout with a rival gang. I asked him if he thought this kind of life style was cool or romantic?

“I did…until I got shot!”

“How do you feel about it now?”

“It hurts…It really hurts! I didn’t expect getting shot would feel like this!”

I told him I was a songwriter and I shared a few lines with him that I had written a few days earlier.

You Can’t Push A Bullet Back Into A Gun

You can say that you’re sorry, but the damage is done

you may as well try to blow out the sun

You Can’t Push A Bullet Back Into A Gun

He asked me to repeat it, then asked me to write it down. As I gave it to him I said, “I hope you remember those words if you’re ever in a situation like that again.” He just nodded. At lights out, I could hear him quietly moaning, his medication wasn’t working well enough. I called for the night nurse and let him use my Walkman. I told him that whenever the pain became too much to bear just turn the music up.

The next morning, he was taken to a private room to recover. He told me that turning up the music on my Walkman really helped him dampen the pain. I told him that he was welcome to borrow it while he was recovering.

I honestly never expected to see him or or my walkman ever again, but a week later he dropped by my bed to see me before he was about to be discharged. Handcuffed to his wheelchair, being pushed by an L.A. police officer, he handed me my Walkman and recited by memory…

You Can’t Push A Bullet Back Into A Gun

You say that you’re sorry but the damage is done

You may as well try to blow out the sun

You Can’t Push a Bullet Back Into A Gun

He shook my hand and smiled. Although I never saw or heard from him again, I knew he would never forget his experience and neither will I. A few weeks later I finished the song.

Copyright 2007 by Artie Wayne

 

 

You Can’t Push A Bullet Back Into A Gun

By Artie Wayne

You Can’t Push A Bullet Back Into A Gun

You say that you’re sorry, but the damage is done

You may as well try to blow out the sun

You Can’t Push A Bullet Back Into A Gun

Little Jenny skippin’ rope in front of school

Starts to cry when a gang drives by, shootin’ at some fool

But they miss their mark, escape through the park

While Jenny’s on the ground, watchin’ the world get dark

You Can’t Push A Bullet Back Into A Gun

You say that you’re sorry but the damage is done

You may as well try to blow out the sun

You Can’t Push A Bullet Back into A Gun

A truck cuts crazy Bobby off out on highway four

Reaches into his pocket, gotta’ even the score

Meanwhile, at the mall, back against the wall

Some guy with a grudge says, ” I’m gonna’ show ‘em all

Make ‘em fall, watch “em crawl.

You Can’t Push A Bullet Back Into A Gun

You say that you’re sorry but the damage is done

You may as well try to blow out the sun

You Can’t Push A Bullet Back into A Gun

 

Is it the stranger we should fear the most?

Or family and friends, the ones who are close?

It’s brother kills brother makin’ the news

A murdering wife, tired of being abused

It’s a frustrated lover who just can’t go on

It’s a careless grandfather cleaning his gun

it’s a molested daughter who couldn’t escape

It’s a six year old son who finds dad’s ‘38

[Instrumental]

It’s a tale of envy or a tale of lust

It’s the monster hiding in everyone of us

Now everyday, we all have to pray

That some little country won’t blow the whole world away

You Can’t Push A Bullet Back Into A Gun

You say that you’re sorry but the damage is done

You may as well try to blow out the sun

You Can’t Push A Bullet Back Into A Gun

 

Copyright-2003 Wayne Art music

artie_wayne@yahoo.com