Poems from Patient Traces
- lmsapublications
- Dec 18, 2022
- 2 min read
Cassidy Meza, MS2
Disclaimer: Discussions of suicide
Poems from Patient Traces
About the Author:
I grew up on a farm on the outskirts of Lansing, Michigan. We had all kinds of animals; cows, chickens, sheep, rabbits, dogs, cats-- you name it, we had it. And from that, I grew to love caretaking. When I was 16, I was off to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. I tried out many different outlets for this drive to take care of living beings. I nannied, assisted in schools, volunteered with health education, and dabbled in botany and animal sciences. Ultimately, after finishing my bachelor's degrees in Biology, Health & Society and Biopsychology, Cognition & Neuroscience, I signed up to not only volunteer in Salokaya School of Nursing in Delhi, India, but also for Teach for America to teach English Language Learners and Kindergarteners. During my time as a teacher, I felt the call back to health and health education and decided to apply to medical school. After an acceptance to the year-long ABLE program at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, I swifty met and fell in love with my husband. We are now both second-year students who enjoy spending time with our two dogs and cat, exploring new cities and trying new foods!
About the Work:
This is poetry inspired by the notes on patient sterilization records from California from 1921-1953. I wanted to engage with data-- of which we had tens of thousands of lines of-- in a way that wasn't simply a poster, manuscript or graph. Firstly, I wanted to remember that these records were of real people who were forcefully sterilized and that they had feelings. Secondly, I wanted to interact with my own feelings surrounding these facts and I swiftly chose one of my favorite forms of writing-- poetry. These poems were almost cathartic to write, and still to this day I read them and remember exactly what I felt as I digitized all those files.
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