Lynette Lamp has practiced family medicine in northeast Iowa and southeast Minnesota since 1995. She graduated from the University of Kansas Medical school and completed her residency in family medicine at Hinsdale Hospital in Hinsdale Illinois. Lynette has always enjoyed writing and decided to go back to school to earn her MFA in poetry from Spalding University in 2022. Her poems, essays and stories reflect her commitment to the patients she supports in the Midwest rural community.

Lynette’s poems have been published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), Annals of Internal Medicine, The Pharos, Dermanities, Tipton Poetry Journal, The Healing Muse and Pulse. She is currently working on a collection of personal essays and attempting to publish her poetry manuscript, Standard of Care, which was a finalist for the John Ridland Poetry Prize. She has two grown children and retreats with her husband to their farm in Iowa whenever she can.

She breastfed my sister
as I played at the base of her chair.
Sunbeams pierced the window, landing
on my arms with startling warmth.

Management is explaining Relative Value Units,
RVUs, discussing our worth to the organization.
The numbers are swimming on the page,

She comes in once a month for a shot
to keep the mania from taking over,
but a smile always on her face,
gratitude always on her lips.