More Than Skin Deep
Our successes are born out of / The communities that uplifted us. / The teachers that pushed us.
Tag: 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
Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine
Rewan Abdelwahab is a third year medical student at Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine in Rochester, MN class of 2024. In 2020, she graduated from Harvard with a Bachelor of Arts in Integrative Biology with minors in African American Studies and Spanish. She enjoys calligraphy, reading, singing, writing, and photography. In the future, Rewan would like to pursue a career in oncology.
Choreiform Tango
The intruder slithers in at midnight, / slinking his way to the boy fast asleep, / the tangled mess of hospital wires his field of untrimmed grass,
Operating Room
As I step carefully into the sterile field / past the rows of scalpels, forceps and clamps, / I sense a gentle fluttering in my chest.
Caduceus
Should the symbol of medicine bear one snake or two? / If you answered two, then the joke is on you! / Or, at least, that’s the current popular view.
Trauma Shift
I imagine her mother / Squeezing daughter’s limp hand / Silent tears
Anatomy: A Cadaveric Poem
Anatomy is more than flesh and bone and blood. / It’s more than the donor and the scalpel teaching the student.
HPI
good morning, i’m the medical student / i must ask how you are feeling / even though my eyes already sting
Borborygmi
Borborygmi: Rumbling or gurgling noises made by the movement of fluid and gas in the intestines.
Scan to Scan
A fog of emotions blankets the waiting room / Stress and anxiety, with some impending doom.
Divinity
There is a straight line from / ordering an ultrasound to obtaining / clear cylinders of red blood cells.
Doing
Deadlines rush on, relentlessly. / Another email signed, / “Best regards.”
DVTs
Studying blood clots / While I sit for hours on end / Affixing my own.
Contributing Writer
Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine
Raelynn is a fourth year medical student at Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine in Miami, Florida, Class of 2023. In 2019, she graduated summa cum laude from the University of Central Florida with a Bachelor of Science in biomedical sciences with a minor in Spanish. She enjoys reading, playing soccer, running, and playing guitar in her free time. After graduating medical school, Raelynn would like to pursue a career in Emergency Medicine.