Issue 8 – Poetry
![](https://medicineandmeaning.uams.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/37/2023/10/Clang.jpg)
The Clang of Distracting Thoughts
The evening began with a question to myself.
“Will I have to give out medical advice at this wedding, too?”
![](https://medicineandmeaning.uams.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/37/2023/10/GettyImages-1029386364.jpg)
Drifting
All the world is on the wind:
Plants coming into bloom,
Distant fires burning forests and homes,
Smokestacks exhaling on the third shift,
![](https://medicineandmeaning.uams.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/37/2023/10/GettyImages-1421626437.jpg)
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She Used To
I could die on a day just like this
With a slant of sun casting dramatic shadows on my face
The nattering birds are finally unconcerned now the snow
Is melting into mud and their feeder is full again
![](https://medicineandmeaning.uams.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/37/2023/10/GettyImages-1318597270.jpg)
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
The limbic system behind the game
They say it’s all in the brain,
The amygdala that is not the same,
Smaller than all, experiencing more pain!
![](https://medicineandmeaning.uams.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/37/2023/10/GettyImages-1476000045.jpg)
In the Wake of the Untimely
It will, like a limb crashing-down
behind you on a wooded path,
cause you to turn, startled,
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Hospital
Argument on hold, we sit.
The waiting-room phone rings;
we don’t know the name.
We’re beginning to feel like drones
![](https://medicineandmeaning.uams.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/37/2023/10/GettyImages-1454976187.jpg)