This manuscript was submitted to the April 2019 Arts in Medicine theme issue.
“One”
It read.
Unassuming in black and white
Just another lab value
A tiny sign
Of a body overwhelmed
“Sometimes,”
She says.
“I want to stand
In the street
Maybe, I’ll get hit by a car.”
Words echo off the whitewashed walls.
“Tell me”
I say.
And she does
Of the man who took her life
The son who fought him,
The medications she cannot afford
Suddenly —
The one lone T cell
With all its weight
Gives under to the weight
Of her world
She sighs.
I see her now
As she sees herself
I imagine
That tiny T cell
All alone
Just waiting for the inevitable.
Image source: Analyzing Immune Activation by National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) licensed under .
Fellow Physician Contributing Writer
University of Utah School of Medicine
Aliye is originally from St. Petersburg, Florida, and graduated from the University of Miami Miller SOM. She was the Education and Research Fellow for AMSA from 2012-2014. She completed ob-gyn residency at Wayne State University/Detroit Medical Center. She is currently a family planning fellow at the University of Utah. Aliye’s career interests include family planning, international public health, reproductive rights, medical humanities and wellness, and medical education.