Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Lest we forget...


Image credit

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

great pic, where did you get it?

mum2twelve said...

Photo credit is under the pic, to the left, just run your mouse over it and click. This will take you to the original.

Lorcan said...

Flashing lights and no sirens, all emergencies over
The motorcade passes, with the heroes who fell
And all on the streets stop, and in silence bear witness
Such sorrow and thanks, no mere words can tell


Who ever can forget the gray ash covered engines
coming back from the alarm like no other before
Such pain for survivors, to embrace all the families
Of comrades so loved, now on that distant shore


Chief Downey, Father Mike, First Deputy Feehan
Peter Ganci and many too many to tell
Your memories we’ll honor we n'er will forget you
You brought hope to the horror when the two towers fell.


Remember Tim Stackpole, how he prayed in the wreckage
In that terrible fire that took two of his friends
So horribly injured he fought to recover
To return to his ladder and to die with his men


So now to acknowledge, just one of the many
Engine 33 ladder company 9
There’s 10 empty places around their table
10 fallen brothers who fell on the line


Remember Kevin Pfiefer, Mike Boyle and Keith Maynard
Jeff Walz, Brian Bilcher, Robert King Dave Arce
Gerarde Baptiste, Robert Evans, John Tierney,
10 lost out of 40 from one company


And though we mourn them, they’re still on the job now
Though they have fallen, they’re still standing tall
Their spirit will bolster their sisters and brothers
Their unseen presence will answer each call



So tell all your children to tell all their children
never pass a firehouse without a brief pause
And thank all the heroes who work on those engines
Each day they risk all in humanity’s cause



I wrote this the week after 9\11... after a fiddler and I spent some time in the firehouse, playing for the company, as they sat resting after a day of working on the pile. Genie and I have spent every 09\11 thereafter with the folks of Engine 33 Ladder 9. Retired firefighters, family, the neighbors get together and remember together.