secret shadow, latent lump,
abnormal level...what ho!
needle, not so slender as you’d hope,
still it's but a prick, but no--
--no, it’s not the pain that makes his eyes avert--
as blood, his blood, spurts up the slope
of the pristine, glassine tube
with each detectable pulse
of the lubdub heart

what news is borne on each deceitful molecule,
telltale platelet, tattle telling corpuscle,
what feckless hemoglobin stewing--
in cellular conspiracy, protein revolution, underneath these skins, brewing--

pulse--quickens--blood--thickens--

--what organic mutiny, drumhead jury--
lifedeath sentence, summary execution--
is in store--for him today?