Sophomore Wins College Poetry Contest

The winner of the Western State University student poetry contest is Melvin Ticke of Heany, Colorado. Ticke, who has been a sophomore since 1967, was awarded 1000 bags of Ramen noodles, which he ate immediatley, and $400,000 in cash. His poem is as follows:

Grasshopper Dreams

I sit bewitched by the grasshopper

outside my bathroom window

hopping

plopping

sopping

watching

the busy ants prepare

for winter’s advance.

What does he know of

gasoline prices, final exams,

the economic realities of budget deficits?

Nada.

He don’t givadamn

He sits; immersed in chew, ready to fly

high in the air with the expectation that

someone else…not the ant…not the gov’ment

not the planetary mother

will see that he makes it till spring.

What does he know of

insincerity, of recapitulation

of romantic interludes in the snow?

Nada

He don’t givadamn

Watching this grasshopper

makes my eye lids heavy. I

think I’ll join him in his quest

for internal peace by resting the outside

first and then letting the rest of…zzzzzzzz.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 46

“Pollo o Pescado?” – the expanded menu at Cafe Tranqulidad, Rumba, Colombia