THE FIRES

In late 2019 and early 2020 there were devastating fires in Australia, the worst of those in Southern New South Wales and Eastern Victoria. Australia is a land of true extremes. And danger.

The Australian land was suffering from the heatwave and the drought
And the two combined a recipe for catastrophe.
The land laid waste by lack of rains and scorching year-long sun
And some large tracts were near approaching atrophy.

But when the fires started, they took us mostly by surprise
And the wind fanned flames in places far and wide.
Bush people and bush animals fled ahead of deadly fate,
But some had nowhere safe where they could hide.

The call came through that it’s too late to run
From the insurgent killing flames.
And when it had passed great sorrow there was
For those missing and their long-loved names.
Incendiary embers swirled like spies upon the wind,
To land on homes and hills out in the dark.
And more and more they torched their prey and blazes started new
From what was once a tiny floating spark.

And many of those sparks became a terror for some souls
As they ran in fear with blazing clothes to save their precious lives,
Some trapped in cars to drive nowhere, some laid down in a ditch,
The luckiest of those somehow survived.

The Rural Fire Service folk stayed long to fight the beast
And some of them joined others of the dead.
Black faces sullied by the job with earnest hoses sprayed,
Lungs choking just to save one more homestead.

And on screens across the land, the animals who’d been too slow
Were doctored and their meagre lives were saved.
Outpourings from abroad assisted those who needed help
And the nation lauded those who’d been so brave.

That inglorious bitch Mother Nature had come
And had once again taken her toll.
And it will once again take near a decade or more
To restore everything back to its whole.

But the love of the communities that were lost in the melee
Poured passion from the hearts of those who heed.
And the Aussie people dug down deep and tried to help the ones who weeped
And succour from those Aussie hearts did bleed.

For on the slopes and in the ranges there’d been chaos and great pain,
With loss of house and loss of life and loss of son and loss of wife
And a multitude of souls were forced to start their lives again.
And we prayed as one for precious healing rain.

                                                                         Bob Piper 2020