APPARATUS

UNIT 17-9

BRUSH 17

TANKER 17-8

TANKER 17-7

ENGINE 17-3

PAST APPARATUS

ENGINE 17-5

A Fire Truck

Right down the shocked street with a siren-blast that sends all else skittering to the curb, redness, brass, ladders and hats hurl past, blurring to sheer verb, shift at the corner into uproarious gear and make it around the turn in a squall of traction, the headlong bell maintaining sure and clear, thought is degraded action!  Beautiful, heavy, unwary, loud, obvious thing!  I stand here purged of nuance, my mind a blank.  All I was brooding upon has taken wing, and I have you to thank.  As you howl beyond hearing I carry you into my mind, ladders and brass and all, there to admire your phoenix-red simplicity, enshrined in that not extinguished fire.

Richard Wilbur