Four Alarm Call
“I need the budget done by noon!”
My boss told me, “He’ll be here soon!”
I hear him yell inside my head
And check again, what was in red,
As a siren blares beyond my sight.
Could it be a firefight?
The muffles quickly grow distinct:
Huge tires whirl on down the street,
Horns blow in boisterous intervals.
Off to the side a driver pulls,
A man and woman turn around
While lights flare up and down.
In a park a child drops
Her shovel and stand ups,
Waves her hand and lifts her head,
A mutiny of engines red
Roar. The windows vibrate
In my office as the waves
Of sound hit the glass.
Horns point down a street jam-packed
And clear a path like lights
On my car do in the night
Through the dark. And faster
Than came the sounds that I first heard
When I was then before the horn,
The noises quickly went.
Minutes went…they disappeared?
No, their yells I am too far to hear.
A fireman’s back and chest expands
As he prepares to hoist a tank,
The captain signals that she’s sure,
A soot-faced child screams a-stir
And in they run to brawl with nature….
The phone rings, “bring me the budget!”
I take what I have finished
To a man whose eyes are stern
As the distant buildings burn.
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