Little cloud is searching
For sign of something stirring
In the hearts of those below
And they all sleep
White, puffy, cotton candy clouds had drifted endlessly across the pale blue sky that afternoon.
Crickets chirped incessantly as the sun descended towards the hills in the distance and the first signs of nightfall edged themselves into the consciousness of the small children laughing in the street.
Two brown haired boys and a blonde haired girl played happily, throwing a ball across the grass. One had wanted to play soccer, another football, another netball; yet a compromise had been reached at halfway and no one could remember the fight from earlier.
"Dinner" called their mother, her red dress swishing around her knees as her golden earrings reflected the escaping sunlight across their faces.
Civic pride an honour
To raise a son and daughter
Staked out and all made clear who got here first
"Be good" she told them, kissing each child firmly on the forehead, red lipstick marking them as perfume filled their senses.
The eldest, brown hair damp from a shower, grinned at his younger siblings while pulling a face reminiscent of their mother.
The others giggled lightly at their elder brother; flannelette pyjama's buttoned crookedly while sticky hands covered their mouth to muffle the laughs.
"Listen to the babysitter" instructed their father and each child fell silent, eyeing the formerly dressed man in wonder and fear.
"Yes daddy" they chorused together, each captivated by the bright medals gleaming against his white uniform.
"Goodnight children" their parents called, walking quickly out the front door and down the stairs, heels clicking against the pavement before the car roared to life and departed the drive way.
Ah honey can I hold you
And play rewind in my head
I don't know my people anymore
Can I stay with you instead?
Fire!
Deep breaths, in and out, in and out
A voice far in the distance, muffled through a haze of choking smoke
Screams everywhere
Sirens wailing
Burning feet and hands
A jammed door, not that way, this way
Quickly! Run!
Can't breath
One more breathe through aching lungs
Please don't let me die god, please!
Fire
Picture a little boy lying under his bed
His brothers playing outside in the dirt
And the fence it shimmers in the heat
Like it wants to disappear
Their father often watched his children play
He spent so much time away from his family; instead his life was the sea.
Yet how he wished sometimes that was not the case and he could watch them grow
His gorgeous daughter, all the innocence of a three year old and the maturity of an adult
She was his princess, his meaning, his miracle.
She wasn't supposed to be alive, that's what they had been told.
How she had proved them wrong.
His middle child; a boy
Endless energy and always bouncing for adventure
He wished he could be the one taking him fishing and playing in the dirt.
But, alas, he could not
Finally, his eldest; another boy.
He was quieter than the others, happy to play his sports and eager for fun
But able to sit for hours with a book
Or hide under his bed making up stories with dragon and dinosaurs and heroic saviours with swords and battle ships.
The least like his father in so many ways
Little cloud is creeping
Across the city sleeping
Who below would try and wake from a bad dream?
Fire!
He can't see anything
It's so hot, so smoky
So hard to breathe
'No more' he whispers, collapsing to the floor
He hears a scream
His little sister
So young she is
His father's words echo in his head
You are the eldest
You are responsible
He's crying with pain and heat and smoke
He wants it to disappear
Now!
But his sister, she's so little
One shaky step, across the bright red room
Almost there
Another scream and he is lifted by invisible arms
He kicks hard; tries to break away
Down the burning hallway to his poor little sister
No, not the front door
Please, she's so little he cries
But he can do nothing
He can hardly breathe and everything hurts
Fire!
I woke early, what did I see
But a clear sky, a clear sky
Looked out my window and what did I see
But a clear sky in paradise
He still remembers that day, the fire and how it burned.
Not just the house and not just his hands and feet
But his family
A poor little broken family
20 years on and the pain is still fresh
Picture a little boy lying under his bed
His brother playing outside in the dirt
And the fence it shimmers in the heat
Like it wants to disappear
He can remember that afternoon, lying under his bed to escape the stifling heat
His little brother played outside in the dirt, his screams filling the backyard as he discovered a new worm for his collection
His mother sat in the yard behind him, following the shade while his little sister sat curled in her lap.
His father was not home, would not be until that night when he was going to dinner with their mother.
He'd joined them in the backyard, laughing gaily without a care in the world.
The Flynn children they were.
That night when the fire had started, the babysitter had not known what to do.
She had tried, god knows she had tried
But it had eaten half the house by the time she had woken.
Their was no hope, no hope for all the children
No hope for the family afterwards as the huddled by the stream, watching the priest in the afternoon sun.
They hadn't last long after that
His mother was in a daze
His father was a broken man
His little brother didn't understand
But he did.
It was his responsibility, and he had let everyone down.
He could see it in his father's eyes,
The man couldn't even look at him!
He'd destroyed his own family
That morning as he lay in the hospital, bandages wrapped tightly around his small frame, four words had been muttered to him.
"Daddy, where's Ashley?" he had asked through tears and pain and his father, taught with grief had answered as truthfully as he could, unaware of the damage he would cause his young son; only aware of his own aching heart and the void that had been created by the flames.
"She's dead Michael"
Picture his momma, little girl on her knee
Following a piece of shade under a tree
And the fence it shimmers in the heat
Like it wants to disappear