For: Larry A, Thank you for your service
You never know what you are going to get into.
They tell you nothing’s gonna change,
They say life is as boring as it can be,
Until it is not.
Born,
married,
and adopted mans best of friends
Yet it lacked a little more
Adrenaline
Incentive
Until an old friend came around with just a little more than what was needed
A little bit of incentive
A little bit of adrenaline
A little bit of firefighting
And it was thrilling.
With firefighting, you never know what you are getting into
One day
a tame fiery kitten, easily subjected
Or the next
a roaring lion,
a flaming mane planting offspring like a parasite,
Greedily devouring houses,
even lives,
As you fall a floor
down
down
Down
(it just caved, like a vacuum,
sucking you down)
Today it’s a starving pack of wolves,
They pop and crack as they shed their flaming fur,
devoured everything in sight.
On your back,
looking up,
the fiery wolves look down on you.
(your back was never the same)
Not all tales were so perilously grim
Sometimes the fire was lit from within
Coursing through those hands which
Wielded hoses
Against scorching giants
And it was a pleasure
To pacify the inferno
Cauterize its damage
How could it not?
The fire was a dragon
And you got to be the knight
And everyone knows the peak of excitement
The climax
Is the dragon’s defeat
Whether it be defeating those fiery beasts
Or assisting the occasionally foolish
(Walls, hands and crazy glue don’t stick well)
The mantra you’ve secured and passed through decades
Echoing clearly
(Make noise, Count heads, then call the department)
Of course
Living with the aches and pains all your bones have endured
Isn’t much of a reward
But the lives you’ve saved
Can live in memory as well
(Now that’s better than the back pain any day)
Thank you Larry for letting us tell your story
-Savannah, Melody, Reegan
