Done as an exercise for a songwriting forum. But I think it has a future.
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Story behind the song
It's about a wildfire that displaced a lot of people. Some of us were lucky to only have to evacuate 3 times and then go home for good. Others lost everything.
Lyrics
verse:
It swept from canyons to jump the highway.
Little warning for those in its path.
All got out with their lives that day,
But some still can't go back.
We studied fire maps online
And saw the beast head toward us.
Then watched the smoke and flames real time
There was no need to warn us.
A bad feeling crept over us.
Our own lives were at stake.
We put the camper on the truck
And wondered what to take.
Some clothes, computers and guitars
And boxes filled with history
All piled tightly in the car.
Our future was a mystery.
chorus:
There will be a period of adjustment
While we go on with our lives.
We'll wonder how this time was spent
When sanity arrives.
verse:
We were ready just in case
When another fire started.
No one had said "evacuate."
But it was time that we departed.
A day in a friend's driveway
Felt like distended time.
We went back home the next day
And got our list refined.
chorus
verse:
Next day flames crested the nearest peak
To come down on our side.
With barely any need to speak,
We took another ride.
Ten thousand of us on the road
In search of a safe place.
With pets and pictures in our loads.
A slow, nerve-racking race.
chorus
verse:
This time we were away two nights
Then got to come back home.
Did laundry, grabbed some more supplies.
Then the order came by phone.
By afternoon we were gone again,
This time because of smoke.
A backburn set to save our homes.
It seemed like our last hope.
Two nights this time were spent away,
And then back home we came.
And finally we got to stay
But things still aren't the same.
chorus
verse:
Five months later we take a drive
To see where we can hike.
Some canyons have nothing alive,
Just sandbags laid as dikes.
Homes and businesses scraped off the earth
Or left as piles of rubble.
Hillsides glazed beyond rebirth.
Or a patchwork of green stubble.
The fire's cause undocumented,
It started near the border.
To some it was a news event
To us the end of order.
chorus
