Selfless Heroes
The heroes’ hopeful voices full with dreams
Were shut off after a deadly scream:
“There’s someone still inside!”
And that was their duty call.
They went back inside with a goal in mind
Not knowing that was their last time
Their rain coats were falling apart
As they searched fiercely for life
We wanted the selfless heroes back
The silence crawled through the crashed walls
Only the desperate heart beats were heard
Nobody talked
Nobody could
The sun rose while the sweat dripped
firefighters dug with their bare hands
Like madmen starved for another smile
Longing for their teammates’ lives
They wanted their selfless heroes back
At home a kid cried missing their dad
A woman stayed strong for their child
As in suits men laughed with
Their pockets filled with cash
Men were left behind
Men who gave their lives
For a system that only cared
For their own health and wealth
That same day they left their houses
Already missing their families
Wishing to experience more of life
The selfless heroes wanted to be back.
By Gianna Ordonez
Reading this poem is like watching a documentary about so many places in the world at the present. There is an almost cinematic quality to the language used throughout. I was especially impressed by, ‘The silence crawled through the crashed walls ’ for the double-takes on the words ‘crawled’ and ‘crashed’, both of which here used as great examples of language being made to work that little bit harder to fit with the poem’s narrative. I also liked the way the poem’s point of view changes as the poem progresses, which worked really well as a poetic device and very much added to the poem’s tone of sad urgency.