Impossible Veins

A mass of capillaries,
stretching out like tiny webbed fingers,
snaking their way around the body,
tracing paths to organs and appendages
and connecting them all back to the central circuitry:
the heart.
Little blue lines under the skin,
weaving intricate roads as they bring the vital
"nectar of the vampires" from place to place.
They are so important, and yet
they are sluggish.
Their precious liquid cargo arrives
to its destination late, making the fingers cold.
The transmission of their oxygen-poor and
carbon dioxide-rich shipment to the lungs is also
delayed, but whether it influences breathing
cannot be known for sure.
And when it comes to matters of the heart
that exceed mechanical actions,
when the beating, tormented organ
displays those dangerous emotions,
they go haywire, either shooting off the synapses
at such a rapid pace that
every artery,
ever cell,
burns with them,
or else they ignore the messages completely,
shutting down and becoming a splayed pattern
of ice.
They truly are impossible veins.