Ambulances (Free Verse Sonnet) Poem by Gert Strydom

(after Philip Larkin, Martinus Nijhoff and S. J. Pretorius)

With the great silence with which comes the final rest,
they do stop next to the streets,
when the back doors and stretchers on wheels do fold open,
in the tumult of the city the neighbours stand astonished,
where some on the sidewalk and others in gardens do gather,
when paramedics do come out with a neighbour,
where they notice illness or death for moments,
while children stop playing and the fear of others are unhidden,
people notice severe pain or the paleness of a face,
women with shopping bags stare, speechless, astonished and silent,
are jerked by the insignificance of human existence,
the back doors of the ambulance do slam shut,
people wonder about life and about the will of God,
when again they do talk and do go on with their own lives.

[References: "Ambulances" by Philip Larkin. "Het uur u" (Your hour)by Martinus Nijhoff. "Ambulanse of het uur u" (Ambulances or your hour)by S. J. Pretorius.]

© Gert Strydom