To the Girl with the Golden Heart Earrings
There lives a city only with pairs permitting. / Two lungs move together with love in the air / she takes his breath away when they’re a pair.
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
University of California, San Diego School of Medicine
Mitchell Foster is a second-year medical student at the University of California, San Diego Class of 2022. In 2016, he graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a Bachelor of Science in pharmacology. He enjoys traveling, sports, and playing with dogs in his free time. After graduating medical school, Mitchell would like to pursue a career in emergency medicine, sports medicine, or surgery.
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?
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…
There Is No Sound
There is no sound / like that of a heart breaking.
Medicine is a March
Medicine is a march, but it’s not like Sherman’s to the sea. You don’t burn what you leave, and the sea is always just beyond the next hill.
Broken
A few winters ago, you called me after a ski accident and announced / “I have fractured my tibial plate.”
The Tomato Plant
We work in a hospital / Faithfully / Like the tomato plant / Serving a garden community
Contributing Writer
WSU Boonshoft School of Medicine
Vaama Patel is a fourth year medical student from WSU Boonshoft School of Medicine who enjoys exploring cities, meeting new people, and hearing good stories.