Bushfire

 

Heat beats down upon the street
Birds too hot to fly,
Blistered sand you cannot stand
Drenched with sweat am I.
Cows collect in shadow deep
Panting sheep hang head,
Goshawk flies in cobalt skies
Hills of grass stand dead.

Whisp of smoke, a puff of breeze
Sirens scream in air,
Running men in squads of ten
Emerge from everywhere.
Now the rising wind takes charge
Runs with leaping flame
Into crown of eucalypts
To rage across the plain.

Too late the tenders hoses poure,
Too late the fireman’s shout
Inferno hot has run amok
And all control a rout.
Generating mighty winds
The Fire charges forth
Spiralling in furnace air
To incinerate for sport.

Vanquished men exhausted stand
Watch with useless eyes,
As raging flames consume their truck,
Inside a good mate dies.
A live thing in the burnished night
It writhes and spirals high
Across the flaring treetops
Hot, red smoke fills the sky.

As sudden as it starts, it stops
A wind change in the air.
Ravaged forest stark and black
Hot ashes everywhere.
Hills of cinders smoking now
Stock in death’s repair,
Homesteads rendered charcoal like
Farmers in despair.

A silence in the ravaged hills
Birdless in the sky,
Bushfire horror, death and smoke
Enough to make you cry.

Marshalg
In support of my Australian brethren and their torched nation.
30 January 2013

Reviews

[Jack Dawkins]

Very good piece of poetry. Poingant and true.

[Marshal Gebbie]

Thanks Jack, as a young bloke I fought many bushfires in and around Dookie Agricultural college, where I was studying. The fires were regarded as a live thing of destruction and an enemy to man, property and beast. We fought the fires with the passion and abandon of youth...oblivious to the danger.
My thanks for your comment.

[Jack Dawkins]

There's always been fire since before man. They destroy everything in their path but they also make room for new growth, in fact some seeds can only become fertile until after fire. wonderous nature.

[Marshal Gebbie]

Further to your comments on regeneration post fire:
Eucalupts have a tuberous addition to their roots which enables regeneration,
even after they have been totally consumed by fire. I've seen this, nothing but white ash then a sea of green in the next growth period. Amazing.

[Jack Dawkins]

I know and we have the audacity to think we can improve on nature.

[Marshal Gebbie]

Good to talk with you Jack.