* By Via Osgood - Our winner of the Charlie Bartlett Competition

Harlequin faces
transformed in white
i sit back
to view the sight
men in suits
politicians
scrubs
they say you can’t eat peaches
‘less you join their clubs.

i twirl my hair
i die it blond
i laugh at myself
for being so fond
Yellow hair never got me much
just pigeon-holed
railroad
frog or toad
crunch
That’s the sound of heartbreak
the sound of a train you’ve missed
that’s the sound of a young man
you wish you’d never kissed

There’s places abroad i’d like to go
Stretching far beyond this rodeo
Banks of London
Streets of France
We’d all join hands for that holy line dance
i’d sing you a song
in the dust of Tibet
‘till i see a man in dark glasses
drive by in a Corvette.
Your spell was weak
My tune was false
i only need company
when i’ve forsaken all else.
Your warmth was chill
i chase a fire
It out runs me still though
calling me a liar

i return home
eat my red white and blue
Dream of my days
as a run around sue
wrapped tight in a flag i continue
my force feedin’
choking on stars
i remember this is Eden
And who’d want to leave Eden
you’d have to be mad
white picket fences
on straight streets, i might add

straight as our teeth
straight as our walls
straight as our character
with no visible flaws
what’s visible to the masses
is how tall we add up
rationalize
socialize
idolize
chic
economize
homogenize
you-and-me-ize
the meek.

we read the tabloids
we know what counts
gettin’ our 12 minutes
is to what it amounts
we number our assets
one, two, and three
same names as our children
we shelter comodities
social lives
trophy wives
some call it sick
trampoline
lets get seen
makes america tick
we binge on beer
and purge our souls
breast job
nose job
makes us whole

whole wheat
or wonder bread?
got a problem?
crawl in bed
i’d love to listen
if you’ve had bad luck
i’ll collect your thoughts
recycle ‘em for a buck
i’ll take them some place
where cliches are hot
i’ll paint them on billboards
i’ll rule the whole lot.

i once read the phone book
i know it all by heart
or was it just the Bible
or a menu a la carte.

Black days i feel so lost
they have to tie me down
‘cause it’s kids like you and me babe
that’d light up this whole town.
We’d shoot the advertisements
folks’d watch it on TV
John’d say “hey Jane you see this?
It’s like that movie we just seen.”

They’d blink and wonder who’s on the level
blink again in walks the Devil
clad in pin-stripes and Clark Kent’s glasses
Armed and Dangerous to deceive the masses
He says “it’s true those kids are bad.
They’re all strung out over shit they never had.
He never had Barney to teach him right from wrong
She didn’t have Business Barbie
to teach her business in a thong
Boy liked virtual reality
bought their plays station, guns, neutrality
Girl heard women’s lib
and thought it was a fact
that equal rights on paper
made her free to act.”
“Listen hear my children,”
the cunning Devil cried
“Heed not that boy and girl
tis my whose on your side.”
Then he knew him self the victor
and laughed with such delight
as he saw his name brand denim
in a halo of street light.

Now the angel in the bathroom
says she’s not worth saving.
the girls room’s over crowded
with broken hearts and craving.
she knows she had a name once
a promise that she carried
but now she lives in captions
and the tempos never varied.
There’s monsters in the music
fighting over air
and it always seems so cloudy
trying to be somewhere
The light that’s in your face
should reflect the stars above
Not magazine’s airbrushed images,
when push comes to shove.

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