Fiction Issue #3: Pain Continued December 31st, 2019 December 31st, 2019 Letter from the Fiction Editor: Shared Experiences by AM Larks was 11 years old when my aunt, who was 32 at the time, was diagnosed with brain cancer. It was the afternoon, a few hours before her rehearsal dinner, and the day before her wedding to her high-school sweetheart. I was playing in a big white tent, chasing my two-year-old brother underneath the tables and ...
Read MoreFiction Issue #3: Pain Continued December 31st, 2019 December 31st, 2019 Review: The Pervert by A. M. Larks n the second panel of The Pervert, a fictional graphic novel created by Remy Boydell and Michelle Perez that tells the story of a transgender sex worker coming to terms with their identity, the narrator recalls being asked by a “fiscally conservative, socially libertarian” guy to have sex while enduring homophobic slurs. The world of this raw, unflinching ...
Read MoreInterview Issue #3: Pain Continued December 31st, 2019 December 31st, 2019 Graphic Medicine: PSM Talks with MK Czerwiec by A. M. Larks hen I mentioned that I wanted to do an interview to accompany my review of the graphic novel The Pervert, and thereby shine a spotlight on the graphic arts, my editor suggested I contact MK Czerwiec because she was a nurse who made comics. What I found when I went looking for her was not only ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #3: Pain Continued December 31st, 2019 December 31st, 2019 Now That She's Ill by Lori Levy Now That She’s Ill For Jackie Barzilai and in honor of others living with Parkinson’s disease She sheds her layers now that she’s ill— almost as if, in the groaning, the aching, she gives birth to herself. Not the smiling self who has her life in control, but the trembling one who dares to let go; who lies down naked on an empty page and breathes ...
Read MoreFiction Issue #3: Pain Continued December 31st, 2019 December 31st, 2019 Estate Sale by Charles Duffie aru. I woke still tangled in subconscious panic, certain I was dying, stumbling from bed into a dark forest, pushing at moss thick as curtains, heart pummeling my lungs, choking on my own wet gasps until my palms pressed against a cold, calming surface. As the residue faded, my dorm room reasserted itself. The thrumming slowed and the vibrant dream palette ...
Read MoreInterview Issue #3: Pain Continued December 31st, 2019 December 31st, 2019 “How Do We Define Healthcare?” PSM Talks with Kimberly Soenen by Tracy Granzyk hen I was introduced to Kimberly Soenen, the creative director and curator of “SOME PEOPLE” (Every)Body, a multidisciplinary exhibition of over 70 career photographers and artists pointing the lens at healthcare, I knew her work would speak volumes to our readers. One of the more powerful ways healthcare narratives imbue empathy is by using ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #3: Pain Continued December 31st, 2019 December 31st, 2019 Vertigo by Jill Jennings Vertigo Kaleidoscope lodged in my right ear, I move my head ten degrees and feel the rocks slide as if tumbling down a cliff, pebbles skipping across the lake in the center of my skull. I attempt to stand up and learn there is no up, only the rocking, the ellipse, the white noise behind the eye socket. The wave in the stomach entreats me to find my bearings, but there are no portholes, no horizon to serve as a guide, no compass ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #3: Pain Continued December 31st, 2019 December 31st, 2019 This Is the Floor Where No Babies Are Saved by Jill Sebacher This Is the Floor Where No Babies Are Saved The first time you’re wheeled up to Winnie Palmer’s eighth floor you don’t know— the shock has not worn off. The tile shines hypnotizes hotel-like; then the chair is parked at the nurse’s station, a check-in desk to this resort no one wanted. The first time you swaddle your hope hold it close pray so hard it hurts for the doctors to be ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #3: Pain Continued December 31st, 2019 December 31st, 2019 Healthcare for a Thousand, Please by AT Hincapie Healthcare for a Thousand, Please “I’m here, Alex. I’m doing. I don’t do, but I’m doing.” —Dec. 2017 challenger in response to Mr. Trebek’s mid-game interview “I’m surprised you remember me,” my wife tells the nurse and, “Thank you,” and, “Thank you,” again, as she’s escorted to the back office. Muted Final Jeopardy above the counter close-captions my unrest, and the contestant in me buries ...
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