A Firefighter’s Girlfriend

I am a firefighter’s girlfriend

I go to work and worry about my technical skills

I worry about corporate politics and getting ahead

I delight in little victories and am surrounded by cheap thrills

You text me to see how my day is

As you do most days

Sometimes you even bluff

About getting a new job that “pays”

While I’m eating lunch

You get another call

A traffic accident

Probably whiplash, some bruises

Some blood but maybe that’s all

You’re told to come back

The police need to inspect

All the while you know

There’s not much to dissect

While I’m at lunch

You’re waiting to get on scene

I’m eating a salad on a patio

You’re facing the obscene

I want so bad to leave work

Hold you and comfort you

You crack jokes shortly after

But that’s just what you need to do

Another life lost

He fell down the stairs

It’s not even five o’clock

Anything I did no longer compares

To the sites that you’ve seen

The emotions you feel

Compartmentalizing is one thing

But what you’ve seen is so real

Those people that passed

Would haunt me for years

Here you are complaining about pizza

As a disguise for any tears

Firefighters do not get enough credit

For the amazing work that they do

They don’t choose between who lives or dies

They are just there to help you

I am a firefighters girlfriend

A part time single mother

But if I have to sacrifice, I will

For him to save a friend, a cousin, a brother