"No More" - Poem from Fireman - Victorian Bushfires

Larry read out this poem Sunday AM before our 1 minute's silence ... in honour of the Day of Mourning for the Victorian Bushfire tragedy.

Click here to view the previous post with Larry and some photos.

The poem was written by a fireman.

No More

You know me as Johnny-been-before
I've seen the flames and I’ve heard the roar
I thought I had some fair idea
Of the heights of success and the depths of fear.

I've studied and trained and been to courses,
And thought that I could pick winning horses;
I thought I could see what the fire would do,
And I thought that I could direct the crew.

I'd studied foam and the water's flow,
I'd studied how the fire would go;
Topography and the fuel load,
How to make a fire break out of a road.

I've trained with my mates in our Brigade,
Fought fires with them that the times have made
Talked it out: What went wrong? What went right?
Studied and learned how the fires to fight

But all that I knew, and all that I planned,
Flew out the door, and I'm quite unmanned,
Because Saturday broke all of the rules,
Made me and my studies look like fools.

Bigger and faster than I could think
My knowledge and studies pushed past the brink
My mind and my heart both numbed and cold
The fire came down like the wolf on the fold.

Four days have gone past, and I'm writing this down
I don't understand. why the fire didn't crown
I don't understand. Why this? and not that?
Why burn on the ridges and not on the flat?

The little pink cottage surrounded by black
The mud brick houses reduced to wrack,
The ruin, the wreck, the human cost
The homes that are gone, and the lives that are lost.

Now I'm Johnny who never has been here before
Johnny who don't want to go there no more
Johnny who's seen the grief and the pain
Johnny who don't want to go there again.