The Broken Ones
Send us the broken, the battered, / “give me your tired, your poor,” / your torn and tattered.
Tag: poetry
Contributing Writer
Indiana University School of Medicine
Lucas is a fourth year medical student at Indiana University School of Medicine in the class of 2021. In 2017, he graduated from Butler University with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology. He enjoys hiking, writing, and playing the piano in his free time. After graduating medical school, Lucas would like to pursue a career in pediatric neurology.
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?
Between the Dead and the Dying
A scalpel, a corpse — / His beard is neat, his eyes are / Empty. Gloves hide clammy hands / Afraid of what awaits beneath
Medical Student Editor and Contributing Writer
SUNY Downstate College of Medicine
Gabe is a fourth year medical student at the State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate College of Medicine in Brooklyn, New York. In 2017, he graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri with a Bachelor of Arts in English. Gabe is interested in the power of creative and reflective writing for both patients and providers, and in his free time, he enjoys reading, writing, and exploring Brooklyn. After he graduates medical school, Gabe hopes to pursue a residency in psychiatry and eventually become a clinical educator.