We pile into pick-ups,
weighted down with
medications,
to wind our way up verdant
mountains
enshrouded in billowing
fog.
Overhead, birds circle
& dart
like dark tildes through the mist.
La Clínica, the
village church on other days,
awaits us at the summit,
as do our patients who
crowd & seethe
in anticipation of los
Doctores arrival.
They look like a patchwork
flag
dancing in the mountain
breeze.
We also dance, a spirited salsa-
dipping, weaving, &
twirling about the clinic-
touching stethoscopes to
chests,
pressing pills into palms.
Our counseling is a chorus
which struggles to keep to
the beat.
Exhausted, we wave goodbye
to children chasing our
trucks downhill.
The learned doctor and I
sit side-by-side,
bumps drum our backs
through the truck-bed,
& we philosophize over arroz,
aterosclerosis, y envejecimiento.
Overhead, coffee beans hide
like so many secrets in deep green shadows.
Ethan Sellers, PGY-III
KP Napa-Solano Family &
Community Medicine
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