I heard the sirens coming and I wasn't surprised

They were piercing and far too swift

I heard them shut off as I heard them near

I heard them alongside the road

I wondered if if it would be my road they would stop at

And I wondered who the unlucky one would be tonight

They were so close

So near to me as everyone else lay sleeping

I wondered who they were

I wondered if they would ever know I had thought of them

Probably not, a ridiculous thought, I suppose

I wondered if they knew there was a stranger lying awake and bed hoping it would all be okay

Then I heard the sirens again

Faint at first but growing louder and louder until they became clear

It was a few blocks down but oh, so close

I could feel my breathing which each siren

I would wonder what happened

I would listen to the road

All was still and quiet

Everything seemed frozen in time

As the town lay sleeping

But somewhere out there

There's someone

The siren grow louder

Too close now

Too close for comfort

And for a moment my heart skips a beat

My chest closes

And then they fade away once again

I can hear the ambulances in the distance, the absent siren ones

There's a plane going overhead

And it strikes me how clueless they must be

How wonderfully ignorant of what could be going on below

Of the unlucky ones down on earth

A stranger lies awake

The plane fades away

The sirens are no more

There's a distant rumble in the roads

But somewhere out there

There's someone

There's someone who's the unlucky one tonight