Hellish sheets of orange flame
and colossal towers of smoke.
The crackle of rapid incineration
and the arid croak of desperate hope.

Australia burns on in fifty degrees
as nature's inferno races through.
Desperate people in deadly times
trapped in a bushfire barbecue.

The fire chief says there's only so much
him and his men can possibly do.
The grim determination on their faces
show his words have the ring of truth.

The world watches on news channels
as the tragedy roars out a warning.
The fires don't stop as night falls
and the people pray for the morning.

Woman kneels down in the ash of her house
and tears streak the grime on her face.
She worked all her life for a place of her own
and now it's gone in less than a day.

Man juts his jaw in the shadows of flames
and blinks the soot from his eyes.
Advises everyone to evacuate their town
unless they all want to stay here and die.

Rudd says some of it looks like arson
and then emotionally he goes a bit further.
The perpetrators are culpable
of committing acts of mass murder.

The fires will burn as the mercury soars
and life's energy will outlast the flames.
Then out of the ashes of tragedy
Australia's phoenix will rise once again.