Unclassified

It ran twice, then stopped.

Not the warble I know to mean police,

not the ascending tone of an ambulance.

Something lower. Held longer.

I went to the window at eleven.

The street was empty.

One parked car with its hazards off.

A loose trash bag

doing nothing in the road.

My breath made a fog patch on the glass

while I waited for the sound

to classify itself.

It didn't.

The second cycle came—

same low, sustained note—

then stopped. I stood there a full minute

in case it came back.

Industrial, maybe. Off the water.

Something that had nothing to do with me

but still required my attention

for a reason I couldn't name.

I went back to bed.

The silence after it

was different from the silence before—

that's the only way I have to say it.