Unheard

Marwa Rawy School of Pharmacy 2022 Poem   Screaming loud Sound of pain filling the space Anyone listening? Soul is grieving losing the one it was once Tears are flowing in rivers of pain No one listening Silence again Brain is rewired Threat is near Trauma ain’t heal Screaming loud Sound of pain filling the…

On the Death of the Cook

Sharon M. Van Sluijs School of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Pediatrics 2019 Poem   for my mother I arrive, and the refrigerator, full, hums desolately, a low drone, while clustered shallots, snared in their wire basket and past-perfect winesap apples artfully balanced in their ceramic indigo bowl exhale without audience their subtle and…

Memories of South Korea

Ezazul Haque, PhD, MPH, MBGE, MPharm School of Medicine and Public Health 2020 Poem   Scorching heat in the beach a pigeon flaps its wings to cool the wind a bit greenish blue sea children’s giggling the sound of wave frighten a lost fish the sun hides behind the mountains the sea starts to swell…

Letters of Absolution

Ryan McAdams, MD School of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Pediatrics 2022 Poem                           I Northern Wisconsin in the 1970s. My childhood wardrobe should have been punishment enough—turtlenecks and plaid pants; a frenzy of earth brown, burnt orange, avocado green, and baby blue stripes. The cool weather threads helped hide the bruises. But letters…

Yes is an Apple

Sharon M. Van Sluijs School of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Pediatrics 2021 Poem   The nurse told me, yesterday my mother talked about my father as though he were here, maybe “upstairs” somewhere. She knew it. Though he is gone a year. The nurse told me, this morning my mother lost track of…

Recovery

Nasia Safdar, MD, PhD School of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Medicine 2021 Poem   I hear that things are better So I think Time to pick up the pieces But the puzzle is moth-eaten And in the end, undone

Indigo Sky

Elizabeth Petty School of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Pediatrics 2022 Poem   the crescent moon a faint lopsided smile in the indigo sky glows with a subtle warmth a warmth that reaches.. reaches deep within touching a heart miles away far apart the moon brings love back back again for a fleeting moment…

Flounder

Daniel Funk School of Pharmacy 2022 Poem   Construct a bridge to Pulley Ridge Designed one hundred miles long. For paradise, it’s worth the price; The fish abound in patient throngs. Groom me a beach on Big Pine Key And terraform its foreign shore With golden sand from distant lands— Home’s plastic luxuries galore! Release…

Cameron Haight

Kristy Wendt School of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Surgery-Otolaryngology 2022 Poem   For two and a half centuries the prognosis for esophageal atresia was death by aspiration until a cold day in the last week of winter, when a listless infant, twelve days old, mouth bleeding, was referred to Cameron Haight, There wasn’t…

Witnesses

Nasser Lubega, MS III School of Medicine and Public Health 2021 Poem   (Epigraph: Over the summer, a violent act was performed on a person I love, and I never got to say goodbye. One was a father, and the other his son.) When the evening drew near, I pulled you in with a choreographed…