An obscure fact, I know,
But many ambulances aren’t ambulances at all.
Some are hospital-bound, of course, but others,
Careening down the same streets,
Are ferries to nether worlds;
Riparian bus bridges
Spanning the Lethe into sky caverns
Their singing siren flutes
Rending one façade, dopplering to another
Sfumato from spark to darkness, drifting smoke
Anonymous in darkened cabs,
Forgotten as they cross.
Hear one now:
See it flashing, moaning, leaning
If you watch it long enough
You’ll see it
Pick up speed
Wind down narrow streets
Into back alleys
And just when no one’s watching
Aloft it softly climbs
Charon’s charges shuttled up and deeper into twilight
Flute crying threnodies through airy wombs
Watch that shimmering:
Now a cavern opens
And swallows deep and winding downward
Past the end of light
Beating water runs through hardened veins,
Living rivulets pool and flow through halls
Porphyry columns hold aloft the sky
Flutes cry out, souls entwining in the multitude.