I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold
Also known as The Figure 5 in Gold, this is a 1928 painting by American artist Charles Demuth, inspired by a 1921 poem by William Carlos Willams, "The Great Figure."
The poem is about a red fire engine racing through the street--Engine No. 5. The painting captures the approach and receding via perspective and parallax. The number 5 becomes a character of its own, landing in front of the artist's viewpoint.
So, for this challenge:
Poem --> to painting and --> (to me) back --> to poem again:
* * *
TITLE: Just Another Number
Somewhere was
Belched No.5
Birthed into my world
Emergently
Warble/chirp/trills enter my ears
Sinusoidal perturbations
Crunched to bunch toward me
Acoustically
Precipitous, red, monstrous machinery
Blue shifting forewarns
Juggernaut and Titan
Visually
At me
Time and life move differently
For it and me
Relatively
We intersect at shared
Moment and coordinates
To touch the other
Geographically
Trills and chirps rush away
Howling sirens stretch
And timbres devolve
Acoustically
Machinations on wheels recede
Cutting swath divides the urban sea
That slams back behind it
Visually
Toward the checkered flag, aflame
Emergency rolls on to be
Someone else's problem
Fatefully
Tension and drama settle away
From me to someone not me
Someone unknown
Invisibly
Victims unknown, soon forgotten
My life continues
Without others' problems
Indifferently