In the midst of the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, I reluctantly joined a virtual academic half day for care of the elderly and geriatric medicine residents. The talk was titled “Professional Identity” and I was not sure what to expect or what I would gain from it. After discussing a short story written by writer and physician Dr Naomi Rachel Remen, Dr Arielle Berger gave us the following writing prompt: “Behind my mask, I ….” We were given 5 minutes to write whatever came to our minds. As I put pen down to paper, I was reminded of my recent experience seeing an elderly patient who presented with hip pain to a busy downtown emergency department.
The mask
Behind my mask, I read your results
Behind my mask, I take deep breaths
I hide my flaws, I shed a tear.
Behind my mask I walk to your room …
I hide my sadness.
Behind my mask I worry
what you will think of me.
Behind my mask, I tell you that you have cancer.
Behind the mask I hide away
from not just a virus
but also from you.
Footnotes
Competing interests
None declared
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