THE BODY | Mildred Galvez

The dark beneath my eyes,
the pallor of my skin—

not quite illness,
not quite choice.

The person from before,
now a stranger,
a figure caught
in glass,
familiar only in outline.

Hands that both study
and steady.

A chest that learns
to breathe
for more than one.

Legs accustomed
to standing
past their asking.

And still,
my body does not resist.

It adapts,

carrying
what was never meant
for one body alone.

Mildred Galvez is an MD/PhD student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. Her writing explores illness, identity, and the spaces patients and families inhabit within medicine, drawing from both her clinical training and personal experience.

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