For the first time DCCC hosted its first annual College- Wide Reading Competition, after students read the memoir, “Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa” by Rigoberto Gonzáles. Students could submit essays and poems about the book. This year’s winner of the $200 prize scholarship, as well as the opportunity to introduce Gonzáles when he spoke at the Marple Campus on April 13, was Premisa Kerthi. This is her winning poem:

My voice was down

My hope was big

My family was messy

Nobody can see my needs.

Life is mysterious

Too many things we can not see

Sometimes our hearts are broken

But still sunshine warms them.

I tried to find the place

But it was no where

Nobody can believe it

And they continue doing

normal things.

People are blind

They can not see the truth

They can see just what interests them

They don’t understand other’s feelings

They care about money

But they don’t know the meaning of empathy,

See written in the sky

“Human Bean”

Nobody can see

If it’s not money.

Just look around

I need basic things

Nobody can help me

And I just feel empty,

I see in a God

I pray for health

Nothing matter’s

Unless I believe in myself.