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