Poetry from 2020

I wrote this poem April 26, 2020. 

The green & gold elephant with its crown sits above my fireplace mantle.

Small enough to fit in my palm, but weighty because of its metal base. 

This token brings good fortune to our home.

It reminds me of my Texas friend John. 

I have known him since age 10. 

He gave this as a parting gift before we came to Ohio two years ago.

I wrote the poem as a part of a "poetry workshop" hosted by the House Staff Association at the Cleveland Clinic planned Dr. Abarna Ramanathan. Poetry is a "way to observe things around you that you take for granted," and I was asked to describe the meaning of the first thing that met my eye that day. I thought of the poem again this week when I got a wedding invitation from Dr. Ramanathan for November 2022 in New York City. She was one of my first friends in residency, and I am so happy for her.

The poem describes another very dear friend named John who I first met in the fifth grade. Like me, he was a great student, a bit overweight, and had a mom who was a smoker and nurse. In fact, his mom and mine shared the same first and middle names, and they were born the same year. John and I were close friends throughout grade school and we have stayed in touch ever since. I went to his mom's funeral in January 2016. He came to my going away party in May 2018 just before I moved to Cleveland, OH. He came without hesitation to my dad's funeral this May. Our lives have taken very different courses ever since we graduated from high school, but I treasure John's friendship dearly. I still have that green and gold elephant statue. Every time I look at it I think of my friend.

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