Poetry

After being sent a few emergency services related poems l thought that it would be good idea to display them here.
If you know the writers then let me know and l will credit them or remove the work if so requested in the meantime enjoy.

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I WANT TO TELL YOU LIES
Kalvere©. All rights reserved

I want to tell that little boy his Mom will be  just fine
I want to tell that dad we got his daughter out in time
I want to tell that wife her husband will be home tonight
I don't want to tell it like it is, I want to tell them lies

You didn't put their seat belts on, you feel you killed your kids
I want to say you didn't ... but in a way, you did
You pound your fists into my chest, you're hurting so inside
I want to say you'll be OK, I want to tell you lies

You left chemicals within his reach and now it's in his eyes
I want to say your son will see, not tell you he'll be blind
You ask me if he'll be OK, with pleading in your eyes
I want to say that yes he will, I want to tell you lies

I can see you're crying as your life goes up in smoke
If you'd maintained that smoke alarm, your children may have woke
Don't grab my arm and ask me if your family is alive
Don't make me tell you they're all dead, I want to tell you lies

I want to say she'll be OK, you didn't take her life
I hear you say you love her and you'd never hurt your wife
You thought you didn't drink too much, you thought that you could
drive
I don't want to say how wrong you were, I want to tell you lies

You only left her for a moment, it happens all the time
How could she have fell from there? You thought she couldn't climb
I want to say her neck's not broke, that she will be just fine
I don't want to say she's paralyzed, I want to tell you lies

I want to tell this teen his buddies didn't die in vain
Because he thought that it'd be cool to try to beat that train
I don't want to tell him this will haunt him all his life
I want to say that he'll forget, I want to tell him lies

You left the cabinet open and your daughter found the gun
Now you want me to undo the damage that's been done
You tell me she's your only child, you say she's only five
I don't want to say she wont see six, I want to tell you lies

He fell into the pool when you just went to grab the phone
It was only for a second that you left him there alone
If you let the damn phone ring perhaps your boy would be alive
But I don't want to tell you that, I want to tell you lies

The fact that you were speeding caused that car to overturn
And we couldn't get them out of there before the whole thing burned
Did they suffer? Yes, they suffered,  as they slowly burned alive
But I don't want to say those words, I want to tell you lies

But I have to tell it like it is, until my shift is through
And then the real lies begin, when I come home to you, 
You ask me how my day was, and I say it was just fine
I hope you understand, sometimes, I have to tell you lies

~ Kal The Rebel ~

Dedicated to all the Police Officers, Firefighters, EMTs, Paramedics, 
Emergency Flight Crews and all civil servants who deal with the
tragedies of 
life and death. The saddest of all, being those that involve
children, and 
could have been prevented. Wear your seat belts... Keep poisons,
flammables, 
fireworks, etc. out of reach of children...Keep your smoke alarm in
operating 
order, if you don't have one, get one...never, ever drive if you've
been 
drinking ... never leave your toddler unattended...teens, be
responsible 
drivers, obey all traffic lights, posted limits, warnings and signals
at RR 
crossings ... keep your guns locked out of reach, buy a trigger
guard.... 
Protect our children, they are our future...  Am I preaching? Am I
nagging? I 
guess I am just telling it like it is.... Or I could just tell you
lies.

~ Kalvere
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(c) 1998 Copyrighted to Kalvere. Do not reproduce or distribute in
any form without author's permission. Kalvere is from Minnesota, and would
welcome any comments at the following email address: KalTheRebel@ aol.com 

Used with permission. If you see this poem anywhere without the author's name 
and copyright information, it is being used without the author's knowledge or 
consent.
http://www.geocities.com/kaltherebel
http://www.firefightersrealstories.com/voiceff.html
 

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Twas the night before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the station,
   All was quiet except for our snoring dalmation.
   Our boots had been placed by the bunksides with care
   In hopes that the shift change would finally be here.

   The lights were turned down and the TV was off
   The rigs had been washed and the floors had been mopped.
   Firemen and Medics lie nestled in bed
   While visions of homelife danced through their heads.

   When out of the darkness, arose ringing and light
   The pager brought tidings of something not right.
   The Firemen and Medics were dressed in an instant
   Aboard their trucks and racing into the distance.

   The moon on the breast of the newfallen snow
   Reflected the lights in a hellish, red glow.
   The sirens, they wailed while the federal screamed
   Moving too slowly, as if in a dream.

   The wreckage was there and came slowly in sight
   Lending fear, pain, and loss to our silent night.
   Each of us thought of our own Wife, Daughter or Son
   Each prayed in silence, "Let me save at least one."

   We leaped to the task without further a thought
   And for more than two hours we worked and we fought...
   To free the two drivers who hadn't been thinking
   their driving would suffer after a full night of drinking.

   The smoke of the flares, and the stench of the blood
   The screaming of metal as we rolled back the hood.
   The cry of one driver, the whine of the Jaws
   Putting fear aside, we never gave pause.

   With one driver out, and the other prounounced dead
   We focused our efforts on keeping our heads.
   C-spine and backboard and IV in place
   We loaded him up and we started the race.

   The monitor showed a heart rate to slow
   BP revealed a systolic too low.
   Level of consciousness rapidly dying
   Despite all of this...the Medics kept trying.

   Atropine, Dopamine, Epi and more...
       to keep our reason for being from opening death's door.
   We fought and we prayed and tried all that was known
   While trying to believe fault wasn't our own.

   The sun, she was rising as we reached the ER
   We'd given all that we know, and all that we are.
   The Doctors pronounced with barely more than a glance.
   And gone in a blink, was the patient's last chance.

   The ride back to the station was quiet, and then....
   Despite what we'd been through, the singing began.
   At first it was one and then all followed suit
   This effort together was merely the fruit...

   Of a labor that however needlessly beared
   Was one of a million we knew we had shared.
   As we sang out the words of the song, "Silent Night"
   We acknowledged to ourselves that we put up a good fight.

   The punch of the clock, the start of a car we all realized and loved  who we are.
   And on Christmas morning, 
   as we all drive away...
   We know we'll all try in a couple of days...

   To give someone back their one chance to live
   Now matter how hard or how much we must give.
   So please, when you pray on this new Christmas morn
   Add something for us, and for all that we've borne.

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A FIREFIGHTER'S GLOVES
                        Author Unknown

A Firefighters Gloves hold many things
From elderly arms to a kids broken swing
From the hands they shake and the backs they pat
To the tiny claw marks of another treed cat

At 2 am they are filled with the chrome
From the DWI who was on her way home
And the equipment they use to roll back the dash
From a family of 6 she involved in the crash

The brush rakes in spring wear the palms out
 When the wind does a "90" to fill them with doubt
 The thumb of the glove wipes the sweat from the brow
 Of the face of a firefighter who mutters "What now?"

They hold inch and three quarters flowing one seventy five
 So the ones going in, come back out alive
When the regulator goes; then there isn't too much,
But the bypass valve they eagerly clutch

The rescue equipment, the ropes, the C-collars;
The lives that they save never measured in dollars
Are the obvious things the fighters gloves hold
Or, so that is what I've been always told

 But there are other things Firefighters Gloves touch
 Those are the things we all need so much
 They hold back the rage on that 3 am call
 They hold in the fear when your lost in a hall

They hold back the pity, agony,sorrow
They hold in the desire to "Do it tomorrow"
A gloves just a glove till it's on firefighters
Who work all day long just to pull an all-nighter

And into the fray they charge without fear
At the sound of a "Help" they think that they hear
When firefighters hands go into the glove
It's a firefighter who always fills it with love

Sometimes the sorrow is too much to bear
nd it seeps the glove and burns deep "in there"
Off comes the gloves when the call is done
And into the pocket until the next run

The hands become lonely and cold for a bit
And shake just a little thinking of it
  And they sit there so red eyed with their gloves in their coats
The tears come so fast that the furniture floats

They're not so brave now; their hands they can't hide
I guess it just means that they're human inside
And though some are paid and others are not
The gloves feel the same when it's cold or it's hot
To someone you're helping to just get along
When you fill them with love, you always feel strong

And so when I go on my final big ride
I hope to have my gloves by my side
To show to St. Peter at that heavenly gate
Cause as everyone knows, firefighters don't wait.

                                      Thank God.