the ambulance

attention torn from her wares
the ambulant vendor stares,
as an ambulance breaches
the bustle in the air,
and its sirens scream suffering

the beggar breaks the breakfast in his head,
the sirens' screams wrenching him
to a wakefulness without bread
his happy delusions ended

the policeman parts a path in this pedestrian sea
as rush hour drivers swerve to give way
and commuters look on curiously
interrupted in their reverie

the ambulance soon zooms away
the shrieking fades and dies
the world goes back to turning:
the vendor in her selling,
the beggar to his dreams,
the drivers in their driving,
the travelers in their schemes

and i in my seat wonder
at how quickly the world turns again,
then that grim revelation
from a poet of old:
therefore never send to know for whom the siren screams
it screams for thee