This poem is the result of two specific events in my life.
First, I read a book about a decade ago in which the author mentioned that his father told him to pray whenever he heard or saw an ambulance with its lights and siren on because it meant that someone somewhere was in trouble. I've never forgotten that. Though I don't always pray when I see an ambulance, I find that I'm often filled with a sense of dread and anxiety when one passes by with lights flashing and siren wailing.
Second, when I was driving along the interstate in Nashville a couple of weeks ago, I looked in my rearview mirror and saw an ambulance far behind me on the road. It was an odd sensation to see the emergency vehicle chasing me from so far away. My inclination was to pull over right then, but that wouldn't have made any sense. All I could do was drive, watch, and wait for it to catch up to me and then pass me by. I felt like the moment provided good potential for a poem, so I started sketching out some ideas that day.
I'm pretty happy with the result. What do you think?
Chasing Ambulances
by Andrew D. Doan
I’m traveling.
Moving about in a rental—
This temporary home of my ambition.
Shrill lights
Reflected into my vision
Are arresting my attention.
An ambulance—
Harbinger of trouble and pain—
Is rushing down the road behind me.
It’s distant.
Barely cresting above the horizon,
Too remote to hear its wail,
But it’s gaining.
Other vehicles give right of way,
And it’s moving ever closer—
Chasing.
Still too far for me to yield,
But impossible to ignore.
Approaching
With chilled foreboding
As if driven by the Reaper himself.
It passes by
To find the one in need
Leaving me behind with a sense of dread and gloom.
I resume
My travels ever mindful and wary of the day
When it will seize the right of way and stop for me.
“And yet,”
I hear myself say, “Don’t forget
The siren sound also means that help is on the way.”