Off the Shelf is our section for creative works by medical students.
Contributing Writer
Monash University
Emily is a final year medical student at Monash University in Australia. She is looking forward to seeing the hologram broadcast of the first human birth in Space.
Have you ever thought about what it would be like to give birth in space? To labor and bear a child in the voids between celestial bodies? Quite possibly you have never really given much thought to giving birth at all, let alone beyond Earth’s atmospheric shell.
Jagged shards of lightning playfully dance across the horizon, / their shrieks of war struggling to keep up … / I hesitantly about-face and land my gaze upon his ethereal face.
On the first day of lecture, my dear, sweet professor / Had fallen ill with a case of the flu.
There is pain on her face. / I’m walking on the busy sidewalk, / I don’t know her.
Tears rushed down my face / like the initial gush of water / spurting from a faucet
Open. / Open abdomens. / Idealized organs from Netter’s in the flesh.
Soon, / There / Will be / A true cure.
In the theater I saw you, / white coat and big eyes.
I have stood on both sides of the line– / The line between mother and medic; / The line between parent and practitioner.
time, / its lifespan ceases to exist / as the gold warmth of your hazel eyes surround me
I strode down hallways, winding ‘round to meet / A sailor old and take to him his meal. / A gentle bounce in every step on beat, / This home to many always builds my zeal.
A canvas / Of delicately oiled / Skin, stretched taut
Contributing Writer
Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine
Elizabeth is a fourth year medical student who is also concurrently earning her Master of Science in clinical research at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. She will graduate in May 2020. In 2014, she graduated from Columbia University with a Bachelor of Arts in biochemistry. She enjoys table tennis, learning the saxophone and writing poetry in her free time. After graduating medical school, Elizabeth would like to pursue a career in otolaryngology.
