Is This Man or Is This Flesh?
Is this man or is this flesh / That implores my expertise? / Is it meat or is it human / When we meet, which do I see?
Off the Shelf
Off the Shelf is our section for creative works by medical students.
Contributing Writer
Sidney Kimmel Medical College
Adam Barsouk is currently a medical student at Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Jefferson University. He studied pre-medicine, health policy and anthropology at Pennsylvania State University. As a son of Soviet Jewish escapees, Adam values the opportunity and freedom that America has provided his family, and as a current cancer researcher at the University of Pittsburgh and an aspiring physician, hopes to share this commitment by liberating the infirm from the chains of chronic disease and suffering. Adam speaks 6 languages, has visited over 30 countries, and enjoys recounting his experiences while also learning anything he can from the people and places around him.
Interview With My Donor Body
What happened to you? / I don’t remember / Did it hurt? / Yes boy, oh yes
Hanging On
The scent of illness, stifling and spoiled / Masked by antiseptics.
The Eternal: The Untouchable
What an endeavor it is: / To reach out and touch humanity.
Operational
Blood flakes / fall onto the /blue, sterile field from / crimson-smeared green / light grips.
Starved
She suffers from bouts of amenorrhea. / She masticates as often as the day is black.
Spring
The year turns four. / April weeps: the vootery / Of a heart too weak / To hold the stifling tears until December.
Afterthoughts on Palliative Care
His breaths are heavy when we walk in. / Abdomen distended: / a large, perfect half-sphere…
Twelve Weeks
Dr. Perkins explained to Elizabeth that she had three options: continue with the pregnancy and parent the child, continue with the pregnancy and pursue adoption, or discontinue the pregnancy and have an abortion.
There Is No Sound
There is no sound / like that of a heart breaking.
Yours Sincerely
This house was once full of life / Layers of warmth and affection. / A fireplace, the heart of all
Women With Notebooks
If you come into the hospital room before she arrives, you might miss the telltale signs of her existence. They are subtle — a soft sweater thrown over a chair for those drafty hospital wards or an absurdly expensive vegetable tray from the café downstairs on the patient’s table.
Writer-in-Training
Queen's University School of Medicine
Maggie Hulbert is a third year medical student at Queen's University School of Medicine in Kingston, Canada. In 2015, she graduated from Queen's University with a Bachelor of Science in life sciences. She is an active member of the medical humanities community and spent this past year developing the first Jacalyn Duffin Health and Humanities Conference. Her favorite writers include Danielle Ofri, Roxane Gay, and Samantha Irby. After graduating medical school, Maggie would like to pursue a career in Psychiatry.