‘El Epico’

Millan and Henson’s crowd-pleasing poem incorporated singing, choreography, props and “commercials” in a satirical indictment of youth culture. After an introductory section that concluded with lines from the “Gilligan’s Island” theme song, the poets introduced themselves as Cole and Dylan Sprouse from the Disney Channel series “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody” and proceeded to plug junk food, which led to Cole’s indigestion.

In a poem filled with stunts, the biggest was Millan downing the contents of a trademark pink bottle.

“A stomach full of Pepto-Bismol is worth it!” declared Millan, a junior and previous slam winner, when emcee Scott Peters announced the awards.

The five judges gave it four 10s and a 12, but the highest and lowest scores are dropped, allowing Edwards to tie with five 10s.

Comparing the performance to a forensics event, Long said he liked it for all of the action.

“We wanted to incorporate movement into our poem so we could make ourselves stand out,” said Henson, a sophomore. “It’s less about what we say and more about what we do.”

Though their poem also skewered “Hannah Montana” and called the Sprouse twins buffoons, Millan and Henson said they didn’t have anything against Disney. Instead, they were mocking the commercialization of children’s TV in general, Millan explained, saying they chose Zack and Cody because they were recognizable characters.

The poem also mocked formulaic movies, rap music and holey jeans.

“We built it on the things we wanted to make fun of,” said Millan. “We wanted people to laugh. I don’t know if they realize it, but they’re laughing at themselves.”

The poem closed on a positive note, so as not to leave holey-jeans-wearing Disney viewers feeling bad about themselves, Millan said.

Though the Pepto-Bismol stunt helped make the poem such a hit, Long thought it looked too watered down to be real.

It wasn’t.

“It was strawberry milk,” Millan admitted. “That’s just as disgusting.”

‘Hero’

While Millan and Henson got most of the attention at the slam, no one discounted Edwards for his share of first place.

“I was blown away by Tomas’s poem,” Henson said.

Edwards examined what it means to be a hero from the point of view of a variety of characters, such as the victim of a bully, a believer in mythical creatures and the child of a single mother. Among the litany of heroes, he included “My disabled sister, who fights life and stands strong, / Knows that she’s perfect and that nothing’s wrong.”

Sophomore Bret Bynum said that part especially made the poem worthy of all 10s.

“I was honestly intimidated by Mike and Dana’s performance,” Edwards said. “People actually took my poem seriously and understood it.”

Other winners

Unlike last time at the December slam, when only the boys hammed it up while the girls were shy and serious, a couple of girls performed their way to awards. Sophomores Loren Osborne and Natalie Hutcheson won second and third with clever poems about being themselves.

“Even though I may not be socially accepted, I won’t change — I’m the ‘horse girl,’” Hutcheson proclaimed in her poem, which was punctuated with clicking sounds she made.

Sophomore TJ Martin-Lokey also tied for third.

While praising all of the poets for their courage, Henson said self-consciousness was the main difference between those who scored highest and those who didn’t.

“There is a ‘what do they think of me’ feeling,” he said. “There is something keeping them for expressing who they really are.”

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