Have You Been Away Too Long If

Yale School of Medicine
Class of 2028
Doctor of Medicine

Have you been away too long if

a-ma asks you to remind her
wh-wh-what
year in school you are

memory has drawn you a caricature
wrinkles carving a-ma’s expression
bark obscuring the tree trunk

a-ma shuffles foot to foot swinging
cane slow centimeter by centimeter
smooth and inexorable

movement in place feels tortuous
remote-controlled exercise bike
pumps her legs n-n-numbs her knees

dinner bowls balanced and colorful
find their same places upon the table
filled with Trader Joe’s bounty

when the clock’s short hand points
back to school
a-ma clasps your arm with her minute hand

a-ma tells you to keep your foot
on the gas
Do you understand?-?-?
Foot. Gas.
 

Elaine Yang is a medical student at Yale passionate about medical education and the medical humanities. Originally from California, she journeyed to Maryland in order to earn her bachelor's degree from Johns Hopkins University in 2024, where she double-majored in neuroscience as well as medicine, science, and the humanities with a minor in the writing seminars. She has been riding high ever since she was an impressionable teenager when someone told her that her writing reminded them of Frederick Douglass.