2010 Poetry Winners

First Prize
City in the East and City in the West by Mirette

Second Prize
Mismatched Socks by Lucia

First Prize:
City in the East and City in the West by Mirette Egypt/USA, age 17
 

Intolerance, boils under the crimson sun

Captivity, in the hearts of many

A lion's body with a woman's head sits boldly on hot, desert sand

what torture in the sting of a whip

to create such a monument

if you look left

a man wearing a linen gown and turban

becomes one with his doumbek drum

as he smokes tobacco from his hookah

if you look right

an oriental building bursts with the clacking of finger cymbals

elegant sounds and swaying hips

belly dancers in Cairo

if you look down

the stars are buried beneath the mysterious Nile

and the sand whispers ancient stories of

buried cities and buried kings

beneath your sandals

journey on an airplane across the sparkling seas...

Liberty, engraved in the pavements

Freedom, on the tongues of men

A beautiful lady's arm tires from holding a torch

what thoughtful ideas in the minds of the French

to create such a monument

if you look left

a man wearing a designer suit

cannot part from his iphone and ipod

as a little orange ember rests between his two fingers

if you look right

an expensive building explodes with sound and people

heavy beats and fancy lights

nightlife in New York City

if you look down

the stars cannot be seen on the cold asphalt

but the well-paved streets tell stories of

founding fathers and American pride

beneath your sneakers

and if you look up

the sky that carried me here

is the same in the east and in the west

as two cultures struggle to converge

into something harmonious and beautiful

Mirette on Life Between Cultures: The hardest thing about balancing two cultures is trying to be loyal to both of them simultaneously. It's hard to follow the traditions of two different cultures as they sometimes contradict each other. The best thing about being an immigrant is definitely the food--nothing beats Middle Eastern cuisine, and I'm glad I can still enjoy it even though I live in America.

Second Prize:
Mismatched Socks by Lucia, China/USA Age 16

Two socks.
Two worlds.
Estranged by an ocean,
Brought together under the same untainted sky.

I pull both socks on,
An eruption of yellow stars circling my left ankle,
A wave of white ones crashing at my right toe.
No longer garish and clashing,
But two dynamic complements,
Each augmenting the other.

I am a rope,
Not flimsy and single-stranded,
But comprised of two fibers
Intertwined tightly
In an unbreakable helix.

I am a bowl of zesty soup,
Not homogenous and bland,
But composed of a medley of exotic flavors
Intermingling in a delectable mélange.

I am a pair of mismatched socks,
Remarkably interlocked like Yin and Yang,
With differences spanning half a world,
Yet one cannot exist without the other.