INTIMA SPRING 2024 | POETRY

Click on the title of the poem to read

Behind the Door | Suzanne Travis

Preparing the body and preparing the family are different nursing rituals.

Code OB | Angela Tang-Tan

“God help me, I could not stop seeing the baby.”

Daffodils | Deb O'Rourke

A daughter draws daffodils to help her mother remember.

Help | Aprotim Cory Bhowmik

What will it take to believe a Black woman’s pain?

Mavis Staples Says to Write About My Blessings | Sarah Piper

A physician trades restriction for gratitude in dealing with her autoimmune condition.

Mercury, A Public Service Announcement | Jeanne Yu

Do people care about mercury poisoning? A scientist weaves a quantitative and qualitative narrative.

Oak Burns Slow | Darcy Smith

A grieving father takes to the forest to heal.

Pediatric Hemicraniectomy | Angela Tang-Tan

A medical student contemplates the random unfairness of a holiday gone tragically wrong.

Sestina for My Father | Lynn Lawrence

The radiologist’s daughter cannot escape what people’s bodies reveal.

Seventeen Pocketbooks | Irene Sherlock

A husband remembers his late wife through her favorite accessory.

Thirtieth Birthday | CC Hart

Women keep each other company while waiting for the cancer.

The Trail to Ahous Bay | Dan Yashinksy

The right view can help us reimagine the end.

They Came with the Forsythia | Peg Padnos

A mother writes a “golden shovel” for the birth of her premature twin sons.

Unheard Eulogy | May Ameri

An incoming resident reflects on practicing medicine in the U.S. vs. in Gaza.

We Once Said Duh and No Duh but We Would Mean
Exactly the Same Thing | Woods Nash

“She was taking our whole life with her.”

Worm Food | Carlee Fountaine

A patient accepts her fate with prion disease.