The Great Figure, By William Carlos Williams

Among the rain

and lights

I saw the figure 5

in gold

on a red

firetruck

moving

tense

unheeded

to gong clangs

siren howls

and wheels rumbling

through the dark city.

From “William Carlos Williams: Selected Poems,” edited by Charles Tomlinson (New Directions: 302 pp., $9.95 paper)