Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: stars

  • The medicine in our stars

    Nishitha BujalaHyderabad, Telangana, India I have been fascinated by the night sky for as long as I can remember. I would see the tiny, indiscernible stars and wonder if there was a bigger meaning to the world than what I had perceived. As I grew up, I began to realize it was not the stars…

  • When I heard the learn’d epidemiologist

    Dean GianakosLynchburg, Virginia, United States Sitting on the maroon recliner in my den, I am having trouble concentrating on the epidemiologist who is talking on the television. He points to a Covid hot zone on a color-coded map of the United States. The screen changes before I can locate Virginia. Were we brown, or yellow?…

  • Sleep

    Sophia WilsonNew Zealand The fabric of sleepdescends like a tired paw,turns off our lights,offers mouth-to-mouth oblivion. For a while we can pretend we’re like stars andthat we don’t reside here anymore,between impossible grindstonesand the birth-death quandary; We drift weightless as falling leaves,over silver-scaled lakes;sprout fins and tresses andtransform to moon-mirrors until consciousnessdrops its arsenal, hauls us…