THE BURNING FIRE

“We circle in the night and we are devoured by fire.” - Heraclitus of Ephesus

The bushfires continue to burn and threaten more townships, destroy more bushland and are poised to involve Melbourne’s water catchment areas. If this happens, our dwindling water supplies and the drought will no doubt cause greater hardship and even more propensity to fire. Things are terrible now, but unfortunately they will get even worse…

More property, wildlife and human lives are still threatened by over 20 fires that still burn. We are living through hellish, nightmarish times made all the more horrific from the knowledge that some fiends out there are lighting more fires. There has been an outcry to repeal our arson laws and sentence these murderers as severely as they deserve. How can any human being be failed to be moved by the senseless destruction unleashed by the sickening perversity of the firebug?

The Burning Fire
The fire, it burns
The smoke, it chokes.
Trees become torches,
Houses vapourise.

In walls of hellish heat
There is no time to scream,
The flames, they run
The fire, it scorches.

A tremulous hand
Strikes yet another match
Excitement barely contained;
A laugh as the crackle
Announces the demon’s arrival.

A crying child,
A mother, helpless;
A father watching
Unable to stop death,
Powerless to fight.

The fire, it kills
The smoke, it strangles.
Animals carbonise,
Vegetation, now ash.

A glint of crazed eyes
A slavering mouth
Delights in the destruction,
Oblivious to the hell
He has unleashed.

Cars overcome by flames,
Families incinerated.
Homes, now smouldering ruins,
Gardens, now scorched earth
Lives extinguished as fires still burn.

The wind, it fans the flames
The drought, it makes tinder of our homes.
Lives lost, lives destroyed, lives unlived
As the arsonist strikes yet another match.