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?
Tag: poetry
Contributing Writer
Sidney Kimmel Medical College
Adam Barsouk is currently a medical student at Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Jefferson University. He studied pre-medicine, health policy and anthropology at Pennsylvania State University. As a son of Soviet Jewish escapees, Adam values the opportunity and freedom that America has provided his family, and as a current cancer researcher at the University of Pittsburgh and an aspiring physician, hopes to share this commitment by liberating the infirm from the chains of chronic disease and suffering. Adam speaks 6 languages, has visited over 30 countries, and enjoys recounting his experiences while also learning anything he can from the people and places around him.
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.
Arrhythmia
Hearts that beat, / Turn into hearts that don’t.
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.