Study Buddy
CHRISTINA LESLIE UMKC MEDICAL STUDENT
Medium: Photograph Artist’s statement: I spent countless hours on my balcony this summer studying for shelf exams and enjoying the family of hummingbirds that kept me company each evening. Despite taking hundreds of pictures, I could never capture the birds the way I saw them in the moment, but that may have been what was so charming about them. I couldn’t stage them perfectly in the frame or achieve the perfect lighting, but I got to personally experience their beauty with or without the perfect shot.
My Patient
ANNA RUVINOV UMKC MEDICAL STUDENT
He already knew He’d crammed it into margins Dissected it from wearing textbooks
He didn’t wear it on his face in the mornings While it lived in his crowded head Shrouded to a distant corner alongside every stage he counted
They droned by Archetypes of graphics printed in color
All he mastered stayed behind when he left the room Looming at the exit Peering down the corridor Through varnished wood
Years passed before he grew into the latex
Before his heart stopped lurching from a knock on the door No longer would it taunt him with the fear of a stutter A blasphemous stumble over words too rich to fit between chattering teeth
No longer would it whisper that his entry was a nuisance
And when he slunk back at last Framed in loveless steel That fated doorway
The cursed wisdom did not greet him His coat sleeves reached well past the wrists He faced the eyes, omniscient Only yesterday they belonged to a colleague Today a God
They spoke to him Those impassive irises You already know
And yet you look at me
Like you skipped this chapter by accident Gawking at your exam sheet with a frantic wish Perhaps it would feed you the answers out of pity
You weep like you’re set before death for the first time Again, conflicted But remember You came to this place by your own choice You memorized it pridefully
Has your mind gone vacant Only because he is yours?