Night Siren

The too near wail of an ambulance

assaults the quiet core of night,

its rising then falling crescendo

repeating, repeating,

unsettling all that’s settled

as it announces

an unidentified human incident

rife with pain or loss or both.

Yet this ambulance,

defying disruption and speed limits,

delivers with singular purpose

a medical team

eager to serve, to make whole,

to mend the punctures of sharp protrusions

or the malfunction of a dusty heart

and to begin a restitution

that even in darkness has possibility.

first published in The Fictional Café August 18, 2019