The Tomato Plant
We work in a hospital / Faithfully / Like the tomato plant / Serving a garden community
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
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.
I Dream Ahead
Draped the head and steadied the bed / For the life-saving aneurysm clipping, / I stop thinking of my former life.
Anatomy of Love
Your Smile / Wrinkles, / Where my jokes weren’t funny.
Bun
Filled with fear and pain but love and hate / To raise it alone since he never agreed
Emma
We stand beneath tin roofs / with raindrops on our lips / regret behind our eyes.
Gluteus Maximus
Deeper than its captivating shape / lies a greater purpose.
Rise
So, one way or another / I keep craning my neck / Looking up.
The Weight of a Smile
I’ve thought about this for quite a while: / How much I owe to just a smile.
My Mask
We all earn our way here / Paid in hours of studying / and minutes of fun lost.
Impostor or Two Sides of the Same Coin?
“Eager and enthusiastic” / As I drag myself from bed. / “Positive energy” / Do you have an injury to your head?
A Crab in the Swell
I float in an ocean of sterile cerulean. / In this deep of drapery and gowns, / One could swim out and never see the shore.
Conjunction
I am waiting for my coffee when / a middle-aged Turkish man / asks if I am a medical student
Medical Student Editor and Contributing Writer
Emory University School of Medicine
Jen is a fourth-year medical student at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2016, she graduated from Emory with a Bachelor of Arts in English concentrated in multi-ethnic contemporary American literature and a minor in Music. Jen is passionate about addressing healthcare disparities, highlighting intersectionality and patient-centered care, narrative medicine, and mentorship/education. Aside from medicine, she also enjoys poetry, piano, tennis, indie concerts, Asian-American media, and spending too much time in coffeeshops. After graduation, she aspires to pursue a career in Internal Medicine.