Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Hope

Evgeniya Larionova
Charlestown, Massachusetts, United States

 

 Photography by Michael Dykstra

She, brought in by ambulance, that winter day
The tiny snowflakes peacefully falling their blind way
Broken, betrayed; Fresh track marks on her arms…
“Will I never get saved from doing self-harm?”
From the abyss of hell she never felt kindness
She left AMA… How to end stigma in this crisis?

We met again one rainy morning with falling leaves…
Shattered hopes; she, disheveled and withdrawn;
Fresh track marks on her neck with infection,
Feeling lost with no sense of direction;
Her life-long battle started that day,
Fighting hard to end cycles of numbness and self-decay…

Recovery came through long nights, endless days,
Treatments, mundane meetings, deaths and rebirths,
Exploring her own reality;
She learned how to trust, to cope, ask for help,
Every day-little steps…
Healing scars brought solace,
Blossoming trees, gentle breeze
Not alone in this disease.

 


 

EVGENIYA LARIONOVA, MSN, MA, RN, FNP-BC, is a Family Nurse Practitioner, who graduated from the MGH Institute of Health Professions in Boston, MA. She created AMGITS Drama & Poetry Club where she raises issues of stigma and discrimination faced by people living with HIV/AIDS and substance use disorders and teaches a lay audience about the disease concepts through creative expression. Evgeniya enjoys poetry, acting, hiking and running. She is hoping to advance her studies in a PhD program next year.

 

Summer 2018  |  Sections  |  Poetry

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