Milestones
Wrinkly face and wonky head; I support your wobbly neck. No matter the emotion, you respond with a cry.
Tag: prose
Contributing Writer
University of Florida
Melissa went to medical school at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso. She is currently a PGY-1 at the University of Florida Pediatrics Residency Program. She is not quite sure where she will end up after residency but has thought a lot about pursuing fellowship training in infectious disease. In her spare time, Melissa enjoys going to local parks and farmer’s markets with her husband and baby. She also enjoys reading sci-fi, writing letters to her awesome pen pal (her 8-year-old nephew), and Facetiming friends and family.
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
Housestaff, This House is Not Your Home: A Satire
University Hospital was erected some years after Man’s Greatest Hospital — with the vision of its leadership — to satisfy the needs of many. Namely, the financial supporters, trustees and patients of course. The hospital’s motto was to “Make hospitals great again.”
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.”