CHERAW — Alliethia Ellerbe has won first place in a poetry contest sponsored by the Student Government Association at Northeastern Technical College with her poem “Stranger,” written about her late father.

Ellerbe, 19, is a resident of Cheraw. Her poem was selected over seven other entrants by a panel of three judges from the the English staff at NETC. The names of the authors were not displayed on the poems during this process.

The prize for first place in the contest was publication in the Cheraw Chronicle. The two runner’s up, Cheraw resident Collin Hatcher, with his poem “A Letter to Ten Thousand,” and Chesterfield resident Nick Hubbard, with his poem, “Return; The Prodigal Son” each received a ten dollar Wal-mart gift certificate.



Stranger

By Alliethia Ellerbe

How is silence hushed?

Through the whisper of death?

Love for the lost is spoken.

No one dares to speak the truth.

In grief, just thoughts and emotions.

One stands alone with eyes wet from everlasting tears.

The dull moonlight comforts the loneliness.

My teacher, protector, and best friend taken from me.

Pain in my heart nurtured from day to day.

Looking down at a stranger’s face.

Loveless hands hold the child away.

No voice to remember.

Just a picture of a stranger to cry over.