When I walk in with my white coat And a stethoscope over my neck, I’m here to tell you That I know no more about your body Than you do. I want to tell you That I really mean it when I say, I’m sorry to hear that That even as a kid when my mother was sick I would imagine her pain as a bully I could persuade Or an insect I could catch with my bare hands. I want to tell you That there is a quick fix to your trouble, That if it existed, I would go look for it like Jason did with

Normal. The font style I clicked on to write this piece. The way we try to come across when talking to strangers. The clothes we pick out to wear on the first day of school. The word we throw out like a fishing line, waiting for a bite to reel it back in. Define that word. Normal . Quantify it. Measure it. How? Do you count the actions of every person in the world and take the average - is the average normal? Does some chosen group possess these magical characteristics that u

By Michelle Chin

Folds the beauty a compress warm Pressed against the face  a cut; thin but swollen  Painful but,  Sweet is the hand that caresses me;...

Submitted as part of the 2025 Humanities and Healing Event.

She will rip up floorboards and bear rust-eaten nails to sunlight, Shatter the potted plants that suffocate under the burden of their own...

"Reflections" "Desert Life" "The Mountain" Submitted as part of the 2025 Humanities and Healing Event.

The giving tree stood tall in spirit, even without fruit Without leaves, branches, or the canopy to shade Those it loved. It stood tall...

Atop The Hanging Hills rests my town below Always the same, that cursed hike. Forlorn bodies climb its dark tableau To feel that warm...

Submitted as part of the 2025 Humanities and Healing Event.

sometimes I even forgot It was there  reliable like the tide, a ravenous tsunami they looked at me and constructed a pharmaceutical...

Submitted as part of the 2025 Humanities and Healing Event.