JPOMA Creative

Creative Musings

POMA wants The Journal of the Pennsylvania Osteopathic Medical Association to be a safe space for all DOs to have a voice and be heard. Opportunities to contribute in all content areas are open to all osteopathic medical students, residents and physicians. Share your thoughts, ideas and submissions via email to [email protected].

*Views expressed in The Journal of the Pennsylvania Osteopathic Medical Association are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial board, The JPOMA, or POMA unless specified.


Code Status

February 2026 | Vol. 70, No. 1
By Maria Sara Cueto, LECOM Seton Hill OMS-III

Another stranger in my room
-how long have I been lying on this hospital bed for? -
He asks me about my wishes when Death approaches
-as if he knew better than I do that He’s my shadow.
Do I want the pain to be gone?
Or do I want them to keep me alive
while my body struggles
in a lost battle
on borrowed time?

 

Look what I found

October 2025 | Vol. 69, No. 3
Written by Richard Donze, DO, MPH

Ron stopped by after cleaning
out his OR locker he’d gone
to 3 days a week 2 years ago
but his last case was today

“Look what I found” an older
logo’ed set of scrubs a dog-
eared Arnold Henry’s Extensile

Exposure from the orthopod’s
canon a tableside photo of his
first total joint in “my Dave

suit” the now stale reference
to the time-traveling whoosh-
breathing HAL-quieting pro-

tagonist’s outfit in 2001:A
Space Odyssey but at the 1972
Grant’s Atlas I twinned it with

Read more...
 

Hands That Heal

October 2025 | Vol. 69, No. 3
Written by Jina Park, PCOM OMS-II

Once,
a breath caught in my chest,
pain shooting between my ribs–
My classmate found a tender point,
Held it still through counterstrain–
Until the tension softened,
And my breath eased.

Later,
stress tightly clenched my jaw,
My TMJ grinding through restless nights–
I flipped through my textbook,
And tried a Muscle Energy Technique learned in lab–
Fingers guiding the hinge and release along my TMJ.
The ache softened,
Like a locked door that opened.

Read more...
 
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