Ashleigh Frayne is a medical student in the Class of 2018 at the University of Calgary
My neck aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My mind, as though clouded by sleeplessness,
Or cushioned by some dull opiate.
One hour past, and the labour ward darkens:
The softly buzzing lights overhead pulse
And seem to warn of Queen Mab:
Midwife to thoughts unbidden, ...continue reading
Tharshika Thangarasa is a medical student in the Class of 2019 at the University of Ottawa
You wait,
And enter.
You have 60 minutes to speak.
To expose the intricate framework of your mind,
_______The context of your predicaments,
_______The emotional underpinnings of your life. ...continue reading
Grace Zhang is a medical student in the Class of 2019 at Queen's University
[For my Grandmother]
we don’t talk much these days
(which is mostly my fault, I know)
but if we were on the phone
right now,
I’d tell you how
when we sat in lecture learning about ...continue reading
Prasham Dave is a medical student in the Class of 2018 at the University of Ottawa
Sunken eyes my burden and a blazing smile my shield,
My patient burned under baleful fluorescence—purified en blanc.
My breaths were shallow. His shallower still.
I was haggard and he was in shambles,
I was shuffling and he was frozen,
I was ash and he was a husk. ...continue reading
Jeremy Zung
University of Toronto
Class of 2016
Taut sheets as cotton fetters
In curtained cloister bare
Enshroud the shrivelled limbs
Whose fingers flex in fetal curl
'Round liquid sleep.
---
Masked messenger in priestly white,
Hath divined th'encircling doom?
My fallen airways, Medusa's veins spell
Agonies untold.
Lips pursed, throat tight, and orbits sunk,
You scrabble to set me free
Of serpent tubes and catheter lines
Ensnaring, strangling me.
But stenotic hours, austerities
Have hemmed you in too far.
I fault you not, dear Hermes, but quick--
Prescribe your closing mercy:
The noose which crowns your chiselled neck can't
Auscultate mute screams.
I pray: release these sesame pupils to
Spelunk Elysian dreams.
Adriano Mollica
University of Toronto
Class of 2019
I look at you, and I wish
there was some sort of incantation to whisper
that could string together all the fickle words
grazing around the summit of my throat
and instill a frenzy in their small limbs
so they may leap across the oceanic void
that is the silence between my mouth and you being healthy again. ...continue reading
Jason Gencher
University of Toronto
Class of 2018
An etiolated octogenarian calls out,
Barely audible beyond his room.
He beckons for a small sponge
To wet his cracked blue lips.
Pictures of his family are taped to his closet,
A makeshift fifty square foot home. ...continue reading
Adriano Mollica
University of Toronto
Class of 2019
the crevices in my hands could never course deep enough
to hold all the life that has moved between your synapses
and yet, in the basement labs of my medical school
I am holding every part of who you were ...continue reading
Rhea D'Costa
McMaster University
Class of 2016
The following short poem was inspired by the mounting frustration that senior medical students feel around the most wonderful time of the year – CaRMS applications season! If only there were evidence-based treatment guidelines for writer’s block… ...continue reading
Benjamin Huang
University of British Columbia
Class of 2017
This piece was written as reflection on the author’s rural family medicine experience.
s is for sechelt.
s is for sunday arrivals and saturday departures. for seven thirty ferries, sun decks, and sightseeing at sea.
s is for surprises, for stairs to a fireplace and floors of dark mahogany wood. s is for setting tables and chairs and settling in. ...continue reading