Fire in the Everglades
© Michael Jurgensen

There’s a fire in the Everglades
Burning out of control,
It’s been raging now for forty days,
And it’s got a heat that sears your soul.
And the panther and the gator and the deer flee in fright,
Thick smoke darkens the day and flames light up the night.

There’s a fire in the Everglades
And it’s roaring ‘cross the land,
From the Loxahatchee Refuge now,
To the Fakahatchee Strand.
The deceiving fire’s directed by the wind’s shifting might,
And it jumps canals and roadways with the ease of a heron’s flight.

And the people of the distant fires fear for their homes,
Seminole and Miccosukee, here thay have grown,
Smoke across Big Cypress blocks out the sun,
So many fires they’ve battled, so many times the’ve won.

There’s a fire in the Everglades
By arson flames are fanned,
And it burns above the Sea of Grass
And along the blackened sand.
Two hundred thousand acres have been claimed by its rage,
And sixty miles of interstate were closed for six days.

But like so many times before, the rains always come,
Nature will regenerate, the animals return.
The delicate, sweet balance of life is maintained,
At last the fire’s quenched, and the thirst for life remains.

Now there’s storms across the Everglades,
And the wind, it blows again,
And the rains have come from far away,
Whipped into a hurricane.
There’s a cycle in the Everglades, undaunted by man,
And we cannot deter it, unless we would change God’s plan.