Remembering

Do you remember

Multiplying: x and y/ 15 percent by the bar tab/ Dunbar’s number because you do not believe it/ gamete to zygote to morula and onwards/ And upwards until haploid becomes diploid and diploid becomes aneuploid?

Multiplying: interest by debt/ wisdom/wild prions in the nooks of your brain/ cells that refuse to stop, going going going, Til their death becomes preferred to life?

Do you remember

Sun: rises barefoot, chilly, & romantic/- In to bleach your hair/ daes with a sloppy cherry on top/ flowers, With their glorious heliotropism and thick stems that reach desperately towards the sky until they can reach no longer?

Sun: downing/ ken bags under your eyes/ screen even on cloudy days/ lamps to keep the S.A.D. away, Thymidine dimers that cannot be fixed, even if the sun will rise again tomorrow?

Do you remember

Skipping: class/ rocks/ periods/ up the stairs, your bones made of rubber/ and stepping on all the cracks at amusement parks,

Wondering casually, how many unexpected backs you have broken?

Skipping: birthdays/ Friday night happy hours/ exons/breakfasts and desserts/heartbeats, You wonder for real now, how many herniated discs? Compression fractures? Burst?

Do you remember

The rule of 3: bacon lettuce tomato, location location location, life liberty the pursuit of happiness, Your 2 best friends from your hometown with whom you exchanged blood and love and loss

The rule of 3: Beck’s, Cushing, Whipple’s, Unwept, unhonored, unsung

Do you remember

Falling: ochre crimson leaves fraternizing with the scent of an enveloping tonic/ from the sky on a parachute/ in&out&in love,

Thinking time moved when you told her to, that you had eternity ahead of you?

Falling: in love with just yourself, muscle mass, dopamine, white matter, hair in clumps, companions one by one, Leaving you wondering, where the time went?

Do you remember? I remember, am dis—membered and re— membered

Vaishali Ravikumar MD Class of 2023 Rutgers New Jersey Medical School