Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Susan M. Beck

  • On the banks of the Ganges

    Susan BeckFort Collins, Colorado, United States She told me how her brother diedin a screaming instant of metal and splintering windshield.She told me in the silence of the exam room,my brain let goof Latin names, syndromes,the architecture of molecules,which way sodium, and potassiumflow across the ghostly cell membrane. Prayers meant for the ears of gods…

  • Laundry

    Susan BeckFort Collins, Colorado, United States Smell is the sense below the surface; tangled like seaweed, moving in currents, unfurling in the depth of the open ocean. “Why does poverty smell like laundry detergent?” I never expected an answer. The long and tangled history of the question began in Baskerville, North Carolina, when I was…