*
riding a pale horse
up the needle to a vein
slipping through shadows
*
another mottle
on the back of her hand
the slow IV drip
*
threads of dark crimson
coiling through liquid gold
sunlit catheter
John Hawkhead is a writer of haiku and other short poetry forms. He is a recent winner of the 2016 Lincoln Underground international haiku competition and a previous winner of the Haiku Foundation’s international haiku competition. His work has been published all over the world and his book of poetry and haiku Witness is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and iTunes.