SupermanWatchReadSupermanDear Lois,
I’m sorry I just wanted to feel like a hero again. For too long I’ve felt like nothing but Clark Kent Like these arms weren’t meant to soar And my grip had somehow softened So that the only thing I could hold steadily Was you, Like there was some sort of safety In this suit And these glasses, Like I could carry this ten-ton briefcase Full of the life we’ve made And never need to trade it For my red and blue again. And don’t get me wrong, I love you, I really do. And I would carve your name into the moon Or take you on round trips to the stars If you asked me to, But something about sleeping next to you Just doesn’t feel right, Like these sheets and your kisses Are both laced with kryptonite, And I’m no longer Any stronger than this stupid human disguise, Because Spiderman… His friends still call him Peter. And Batman can be Bruce Whenever he needs to. And even though I may be neither, This human life… It’s not me either. Because something inside of me Will never forget what it feels like To stop a train, And I can’t pass a phone booth Without thinking about change, And it doesn’t take x-ray vision to spot heartbreak, Because it seems like you love me For being a man Who’s really not all that super. So last night I cheated, Which is to say I saved someone; I swept in And kept her From falling prey to thieves, Thinking maybe, in return, She would fall for me, So I flew her up to that part of the atmosphere Where there’s just enough oxygen to breath, But the view will leave you breathless; I wanted to impress her… But instead She told me she wanted to stay grounded, So we went out for some coffee and small talk She told me she Was a nurse Who worked In the ICU, And I told her I’d been thinking about leaving you. And she said “Superman… You just don’t understand. Most of us When we were children Dreamed of flying, But you never had to Because you were already doing that With your eyes closed, And most of us Still have nightmares about falling But that’s never even an option for you, So tell me, Why is ‘man’ Even part of you name? Don’t forget That every person you save From some wreckage or debris Still needs someone With enough empathy and humanity To see them through the healing process Because we can’t all Be super; Most of us still crumble under pressure Like our children’s sand castles, But we like it Because it means we get the opportunity To be built into something new By the caring hands of those around us. So maybe you Belong in the clouds Among other things as flighty and impervious As yourself, And while I May poke my head up there Every now and then, I know that in the end, I Will never be super, But you Will never be human, And the difference between us Isn’t the powers or the suit, It’s the fact that you Will never have to lay on a hospital bed With the fear That the glow at the end of your tunnel Is just the headlight on a freight train That you don’t have the ability to stop And you will never have to be treated for cancer Or answer a 12 year old Who needs to know Why chemo Leaves him looking like Lex Luthor So while you May think that the S on your chest Stands for “super”, I think it stands for “stoic” Because I know that You’ll never be as moved As any of us are, And we all have our marks, But most of us don’t wear them Like scarlet letter scars over our hearts, Like they were tattoo monuments To the stains on our souls, So when you go home, Remember that Louis Only needs the hope That underneath your man-of-steel exterior Beats a heart made of something more malleable, And next time you think That you have it bad, Ask yourself which is worse: To only be able to save people You can never understand, Or to be helpless to save Anyone you can?” |