A Nation on My Shoulders
Failure was never an option for me. // Every time I fail… / I am reminded that I have let my country down.
Tag: poetry
Columnist
Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine
Neha Deo is a fourth year medical student at the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine in Rochester, MN class of 2023. In 2018, she graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Science in Biology with Distinction. She enjoys working out, keeping up to date on high fashion culture, and spending time with friends. After graduating medical school, Neha would like to pursue a career in dermatology and engage in global health education and research to create opportunities for Fijians like herself.
Navigating Different Relationships in Medical School
It can be difficult to balance relationships with medical school -- not just a romantic one, but also those with our family and friends. With this column I hope to show a more vulnerable side of the challenges that come with balancing medical school and maintaining our personal relationships. If you are reading this and are feeling the same, just know you are not alone!
The Broken Ones
Send us the broken, the battered, / “give me your tired, your poor,” / your torn and tattered.
To Be a Kid
Just a five-year-old kid / Yet always in and out of the hospital, / Since her first beautiful breath / Through each breath after, / With her life-giving / Yet ever-faltering lungs.
Bones & Bruises
Your bones are beautiful / And your bruises are art
Hospital Doorstep
A man sleeps in the sun on a bench across from the hospital. On the bench diagonally opposed, across and beside him, an almost-doctor eats cold noodles.
Rising Out of the Ruin
I wish it were different — / Dying patients, struggling hospitals, overworked health care workers, / topsy-turvy economies, politicized safety precautions, and the / uncertainty / of tomorrow.
It Was Grief Speaking
We sit in a clumsy ring / under fluorescent lights, / halfway into the allotted one hour / before we realize that we are having / a conversation born a whole decade ago.
three machines
so one day / i can translate to my patients / what my family missed.
The Overwhelming Choices We Face
She’s overwhelmed with options, can’t even remember what they were, / so we decide to move on and talk about what family problems bother her.
“Stay Safe and Well”
Engaging strangers with kind eyes rather than tender faces, / Air hugs rather than warm embraces, / Family Zoom calls rather than face-to-face visits.
Well-Read
For all the things we read in one day — / from CT scans to emails, / toxicology reports and lab results
Short
Chief complaint: arm pain, / Waiting in room 4. / As I enter, he looks me up and down — / What is it he’s looking for?
Contributing Writer
University of Central Florida College of Medicine
Tammy is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine in Orlando, Florida. In 2019, she graduated summa cum laude from Oklahoma City University with a Bachelor of Science in cell and molecular biology. After graduating medical school, Tammy will pursue a career in orthopaedic surgery.
