Do you remember when the fire came ?
The burning bushes, grass tufts in flame
And so long sang the thrushes, the dew berry the same
I remember said the rabbit of the barrow
The fire lighter's shame
We ran scrambled, all the animals
The little snails in their houses succumbed
Somehow said the sparrow, things now
Seem so different, just a passing dream of tragedy
Commented the hedgehog of the hedgerow
Simple like a melody, but a chorus of fiery tongues
Licking and singeing the branches of the oak
The elders and the brambles soon went up in smoke
The fell was swept, the dale dealt a terrible blow
Dancing in the twigs and lifting peat sods
Where we trod with hopping tip toe
The hawks circle above, no meal of mouse or shrew
They were but cremated martyrs on the altar of an autumn dew
Only a little farther the survivors had to trudge into adjacent treelines
Foliage to shelter in and watch the holocaust of barrow down
