Another Night

Our sirens wail and illuminate the night.

The fire grows closer, it's roaring high into the sky.

The sulphurous smoke engulfs the air.

The car is surrounded in screaming hot flames.

One by one, we pull the bodies from the inferno.

The first is charred, unrecognizable to be human, dead.

The second is covered in blood, soaking our gloves as we pull her out.

Her head is caved, cranial contents fill our red hands, dead.

The third is alive, barely holding on.

She is young, a child.

I hold her hand, she is screaming.

We do all we can, dead.

There was one more patient left in the car, passenger seat.

You looked at him first, then back at me.

I saw your eyes, the worry inside.

Instant fear pained through me.

His eyes were open, unblinking to motion.

He was our friend, our colleague.

Together, you and I pull him from the vehicle.

His broken body lay across the road with the rest, dead.

I stand to my feet, and back away.

Looking around, I see the scene, cemetery.

I swallow hard, my heart grows quicker.

The bodies lay scattered across the road.

The pain inside me grows, I push it down deeper.

We continue with protocol.

Get back in the ambulance,

It's time for another call.