The Fire Station
The building where they kept the trucks went up in August heat
the asphalt cracked, the air itself combusted in the street
irony served hot and literal as firefighters stood
helpless on the sidewalk while their station burned unmanned
The hoses melted with the rest, the equipment meant to save
trapped by what it was designed to fight,
consumed by what it gave
and we’re all watching this unfold in real time, black and blue
watching saviors need saving, watching heroes out of line
When the fire station burns, who do the firefighters call
when the tools of rescue are consumed by what they’re meant to forestall
this is cosmic joke material, this is universe’s laugh
at our attempts to tame the elements, to chart a kinder path
the protectors need protection now, the guardians need guards
and we’re learning that our systems are just houses made of cards
They’d spent decades putting out fires in every home and store
now their own address is ash, now their own walls are no more
the chief stood there in full gear with nothing left to save
watching years of service and equipment heading to the grave
Someone made a joke about how this never happens in the movies
someone else said shut the fuck up,
this isn’t time for your routine
but really what else can you do when faced with contradiction
when the institution built
for safety falls to its own jurisdiction
The trucks are totaled, the gear is gone,
the records all destroyed
decades of logged emergencies now categorically void
The neighboring station came to help but damage was complete
nothing left but foundation and the smell of something beat
by the very thing they’d trained for, the very thing they knew
turned back on them like karma saying fuck your expertise too
Insurance will rebuild it, they’ll get new trucks, new equipment
but you can’t insure against the symbolism of this predicament
can’t protect against the lesson that the universe just taught
that nothing’s truly fireproof, that safety’s just a thought
We comfort ourselves with systems,
with institutions and with plans
but the fire station burning shows how thin the whole thing stands
Next year there’ll be a new station
and we’ll all pretend that heat
can be controlled by better building codes, can be beat