when the ambulance arrives

it's an aging neighborhood,

some of us

have been here

since the first house was built

in 1967,

a quiet village

in the woods, with

a stream out back,

so when

the ambulance pulls up

quietly

in  the cul-de-sac,

with lights aglow,

spinning

red and white, 

the shades

go up,

the blinds rise,

doors open,

everyone needs to know,

who's ill,

which one of us now

has died.