Taylor Wilson Poetry

Taylor Wilson - Tufts
V:50 I:3

To Breathe a Daisy

For a day, a year,

perchance, a lifetime,

a bloodred birthday daisy

wilts quietly in a riotous bouquet.

The vase’s base can’t be 

the perfect orb that it appears

or my carpet would be littered

with bloodred daisy tears.

This day, this year

 - no more.

Like the blowing, sopping snow,

it melts into the streaming runoff,

indistinguishable

from the snowflake before it or after or with

but for the breath of a daisy

and water spilling to the floor.

To Breathe a Daisy
For a day, a year,
perchance, a lifetime,
a bloodred birthday daisy
wilts quietly in a riotous bouquet.
The vase’s base can’t be 
the perfect orb that it appears
or my carpet would be littered
with bloodred daisy tears.
This day, this year
 - no more.
Like the blowing, sopping snow,
it melts into the streaming runoff,
indistinguishable
from the snowflake before it or after or with
but for the breath of a daisy
and water spilling to the floor.

Shadows and Reflections

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Laughter is the best medicine...

Anika Farina, Tufts

Foot In Mouth Disease, Entry

"During the days I was studying for a round of tests, my grandmother, who is not technologically savvy by any means, decided she would use her cell phone. She texted me these jokes to cheer me up. She swears these jokes are her originals, but I also know she watches a lot of Ellen DeGeneres, and this first joke is definitely from Ellen." 

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My Favorite Tuesday Afternoon

Anika Farina - Tufts

Experiences - Winner

I would like to share an experience of mine that has left me so passionate to become a vet. This is a story I wrote during my Junior year at my undergraduate institution (The University of Colorado at Boulder).

         Growing up I had that ‘childhood DREAM’ of becoming Mia Hamm. I was going to be the next famous goal scorer on the USA Women’s Soccer Olympic Gold Medal Team. But even if that did not work out, I knew I would work with athletes as a coach or physical therapist, or through a prestigious organization like the Olympics. However, as college academia began to take priority, I decided to stop playing competitive soccer and focus on my academic courses of study. 

         This semester I enrolled myself in a course entitled “Disabilities in Contemporary American Society.” I chose this course because it is worthwhile to me to understand the true issues people with disabilities face in society today. Throughout the semester I have realized this course has taught me so much more than I could have imagined. Most importantly, it encouraged me to reflect on my career choice of becoming a veterinarian.

         On a Tuesday evening, during the first guest lecture in the course, there was a moment where I realized I was so proud of myself for choosing the path of becoming a veterinarian. During this guest lecture, five members of the EXPAND program (for people with disabilities), came to speak to the class about the struggles they, as paraplegics and quadriplegics, face in abled-body society.

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Underwater In Grand Cayman

Eric Littman, Tufts

Creative Corner, Entry

Sun Anemone, Macabuca Reef, Grand Cayman White Speckled Hermit Crab and Mustard Hill Coral, Seven Mile Beach, Grand CaymanPeacock Flounder, Sunset Reef, Grand Cayman 

Vet Student Mom on the Beach!!!

Nancy Boren, Tufts

Experiences, Honorable Mention

    I’m a second year vet student; a second year vet student with two sons, a husband, three cats, a golden retriever and a pet hedgehog.  If you see an SUV with two car seats, dog fur, Goldfish cracker crumbs,  and perhaps a melted rogue lollypop in the parking lot at school, you know it’s mine.  After being a stay at home mom for 10 year, being back in school has been a big change.  As such I’ve sort of blended the two different areas of my life together and have developed a whole new image:  the vet student mom.  You know the one who shows up to curriculum night smelling like the pig barn because she just came from clinical skills, and more importantly the one that comes in her coveralls and muck boots to the boys’ classrooms, bandages their stuffed animals and answers all the kids’ questions about animal poop. 

During the last couple weeks of summer break, the boys and I went to the beach.  I was relaxing decked out in my full SPF 50 long sleeve rashguard shirt and swim shorts complete with large brimmed hat when suddenly I heard a commotion; a commotion that involved lots of laughter, squealing and a group of 5 year old boys.  I just knew they had caught something, just like how when I hear our dog retching on our couch I know she’s eaten a Lego.   I went over and sure enough there was a fish in a sand bucket.  All the Goldfish cracker crumbs in my car and melted lollipops didn’t just come from nowhere.  They were earned from years of explaining crucial life lessons like why the dog doesn’t get to eat lunch, or why the cat can’t sleep in the hedgehog cage with the hedgehog even if it would be cute or, and this last one we’ve had to have a few times, why bologna does not belong on the kitchen chandelier.  With my hat covered head held high and my white rashguard shirt glistening in the sunlight, alright maybe glistening is a strong word, I told them that I was a vet student and talked to them about why it was important they let the fish go which they did.  They I went back to my chair to apply more sunscreen and to be grateful that unlike my younger classmates  I’m at an age where bikinis are no longer cool and rashguards are all the rage.  

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