On the Ambulance Run

On the ambulance run the red scream
always startles
liquescent light a pulse
throbbing the hotel walls
the cool surface of the Ala Wai

On the ambulance run six or eight
prowl cars crowd a driveway
an apartment lights up, the ambulance
ebbs away
and for hours figures on the seventh floor
move from room to room

On the ambulance run the night
never blackens and the brackish air
stings the mind alert
Later on television the woman
whose husband startled a burglar
says yes I'd return
there's murder in Alberta too

–Tony Quagliano