The Firefighter
Sirens sound!! He awakes with a start and hastily grabs up his clothes, dressing on the run, as he has done so many times before.
Thumping of footsteps, motors churning, directions sounding over the radio, chaos! TOTAL CHAOS! Or it seems… yet, within seconds, dispatch… they are on their way, racing down the street, sirens at ear-splitting pitch. Meanwhile, his mind dashes to other nights of grueling, heartbreaking tragedy - ridden, heat searing - work. And he cries to the depths of his soul, "WHY DO I CONTINUE?"
Loaded with nets, roof cutters, ladders, axes, they Don air masks as they arrive. It is another bad one. Flames are shooting everywhere, lighting the darkest of nights with an eerie glow. Screaming, a man and woman clutching onto one another in panic.
Nothing but PURE intuition, so it seems, takes the Firefighter through collapsing beams, up the stairs, past flaming bedrooms and into a tiny closet to the side of a smoke filled bedroom. He quickly gathers up two squirming bundles in his arms, darts to the nearest window and throws them to the waiting nets below… He then leaps.
Restrained no longer, the man and woman bound for the nets. The firefighter, weakened, hears sounds that are so far away, of a little dog’s whimper, happy cries and excited voices.
Then an explosion rocks the very ground upon which he lay. Through the pain of a broken arm, he feels a little dog licking his face, and slowly opens his eyes, the depth of his soul is touched, he will never be the same, he needs no thank you’s, because he now knows the very reason "WHY HE CONTINUES" ; for within her happy parents’ arms……………
A CHILD SMILES
FIRE POETRY