Ambulance

The long siren wailing,

the packed traffic

cleft in quick silence,

the ambulance already far ahead,

a white, shrinking spot beneath a ruby blur,

its cry the signature

of one will, unsparing truth

commanding a whole city.

Everything postpones, time stammering

as the ambulance insists

left, right, straight,

crossing the lines

kept by thousands.

Then, like the Red Sea, cars

flood the lane shut,

the ambulance vanishing toward a distant realm

bearing its cargo of mystery

all the way from childhood.

Hope maintains

its handshake with the steady heart—

hemorrhage or coma,

each breath in breathed out.