5th Place

I am nobody, which allows me to be anybody.

It can be liberating that people don’t know where I belong. Outside Dearborn, people see me as a Muslim Arab-American, but in Dearborn, my tan skin fits in with any culture, especially in the summer. I’m not too light to be mistaken for a Yemeni, not too dark to be mistaken for a Syrian, just in the middle. When I open my mouth, it perplexes people more.

“What dialect do you speak?”

“It’s called ‘Madani,’ it’s between Jordanian and Palestinian."

A towering shadow of a man is all that is left of him,
one of 18,000 people without a home in Detroit, Michigan.
He blends into buildings and cowers under the feet of passersby,
he is not invisible but camouflages himself among the city streets.
His hair is painted pavement gray,
his skin scarred and pallid.
He lives his life making treasures of others trash,
making homes on donated bench landmarks,
and the sooty, littered asphalt in the city.
He walks as if one leg is shorter than the other

Introduction by Dr. John Rietz, Chair, Barrett Committee:

Melodic waves of sound flow dynamically from the circular mouths of the Casio WK-1630. Deep, bassy vibrations are beating rhythmically on the walls of the sparsely lit make-shift studio that doubles as a bed­room. Bumpathurnp, bump bump bumpathump, Pow- The drum track is insistent and beguiling.