Yearning for Better Opportunities at Home
Home became a dark / place, and I miss the feeling / of warmth on my face
Tag: poetry
Resident Physician Contributing Writer
Ohio State University
Joan Nambuba is a first-year resident physician in emergency medicine at The Ohio State University. She received her medical degree (MD) in 2022 from The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. She also holds Master of Science (2016) and Bachelor of Science (2013) degrees from Duke University. In her free time, she enjoys watching Duke basketball, traveling, exploring nature, and capturing candid photos of loved ones.
The Hug
There was a dark, empty space. / Stillness, / Where there should have been movement.
Pediatric Vaccine Schedule
Your mom gets tetanus (Tdap) / before you’re born, / Plus COVID and flu / are the norm.
We Had a Choice
My husband and I were pregnant with a child / Then we found out something wild. / I am a carrier of SMA / And this affects me in almost no way.
Dancing in the Rain
why do we live? do we struggle in vain / for the dream of a world, of a life without pain? / we suffer in spades, without cause, without gain
Levity
At the turn of every corner / I will be found out / You will see / The fraud in me
The Newborn Perspective
Don’t you forget the first day of life, / You had turned upside down / And a tight slap upon your backside / Even to get you to breathe!
Life // Death
A flicker on the screen of the heartbeat, the first glimpse of my baby, I cry at the possibility of new life // An empty ultrasound, no heartbeat, a young mom cries; discovery of death amidst life.
Stargazer
Graduation gown: shiny, matching cap / She looks up / With aspirations
For the Love of Medicine
I spent years of my life preparing for you / before I even knew the ways you would make my soul come alive, / How much you would spark my curiosity and give me purpose
Vibrant
Older people aren’t sweet, precious or cute, / They’re wisest among us, without dispute. / A habit of ours is to condescend / When talking to people near life’s end.
Meditations on Medicine
A collection of poems entitled “Meditations on Medicine.”
Resident Physician Contributing Writer
University Hospital of Krakow, Poland
Adrian Poniatowski is native New Yorker and a physician poet. He studied history at Cornell University before going on to finish medical school in Poland at Jagiellonian University. He received an appointment to stay on at his alma mater as Lecturer in Pathophysiology, in addition to his duties as an intern physician at the University Hospital of Krakow, Poland. He draws inspiration from his Catholic faith and long walks spent meditating on the sublime beauty of daily life. His artistic motto is Ars neptis Dei, a paraphrase from the
Divine Comedy proclaiming that “Art is the granddaughter of God.”