This Space
This is a space / between you and me / where you can simply be
Poetry Thursdays
Poetry Thursdays is our initiative to highlight poetry and prose by medical students, with a new post every Thursday. If you are interested in contributing or would like to learn more, please contact our editors.
Contributing Writer
Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
Bo is a fourth year medical student at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth in Hanover, NH class of 2024. In 2018, Bo graduated from Dartmouth with a Bachelor's degree in psychology, then pursued a Master's in global health at UCSF. Bo enjoys running, hiking, and volunteering in her free time. Bo would like to pursue a career in internal medicine and geriatrics.
hope
like breath in our lungs / we do not notice it / until it is gone
Where I Am From
I am from wide-toothed combs / pulled through tangled hair. / I am from rumbling yellow school buses
Secret Burrito
High potassium? / How did this happen so fast? / Secret burrito.
A Call To Action
Yet another Black man murdered. / I am not Black, I am not White, but I am American. / We were established on the idea of a collective “we” — we, the people, despite creed or color.
Aylan
A mourning sun cries as she tucks away / the night to uncover red and blues / lumps of fabric and skin on gritty sand below.
New Way
There’s so much more to do, / there’s so much more to say, / I just hope we can change / and create a new way.
Am I Essential?
Am I essential? / A med student waiting for change, / inundated with facts and figures. / Am I just in the way?
It’s A Lot
I agree that protesting is best done in peace, / But wasn’t that tried by taking a knee? / Or hashtags that said Black Lives Matter, / And praying that change would come with the chatter.
I Stand
I stand for justice and peace; / I stand for equity alongside equality. / I stand until the hate crimes cease.
Empty Hands
Tonight, there are families who will go to bed / Without having eaten dinner. They will slip / Through sheets of faded blue, stained with
So-So
“I still feel the same,” she says / after three weeks of ECT. / Monday / Wednesday / Friday —
Contributing Writer
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Kathryn Norman is a fourth-year medical student at University of Massachusetts Medical School class of 2021. She received her Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Harvard University in 2015. Before starting medical school, she worked as a CDC Public Health Associate in Modesto, CA, where she discovered her love for both local health policy and hiking in the Sierra Nevada mountains.