Cool Hands

<a href="http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=19373&picture=hypodermic-needle">Hypodermic Needle

by Jiri Hodan

Cool hands

Final evidence revs into gear

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doctor bends his oath and

leans, cool hands smooth the white

shift of his strapped number nine –

none gassed anymore 
yet somehow the scent

sweet, and sickening, sliding suddenly 
with the needle, pushing 

certain knowledge coursing 

his own veins 
thrumming his own clear 
culpability
in his first murder 

in the first degree.