I am superman

in the fifteen minutes that I got to be superman
there was kryptonite
people watching
a warning in my head
a man with a lash
a tearing of red and blood and blue and skin

a warning that I’d kill him when it was over
even when it was someone else’s fifteen minutes afterwards
I’d leave a memory somehow
I was superman
eventually it always ended

now though, a smell of iron
a rich odor of saint’s blood and longing
a thought of you
of former strength that I’d never felt
but was in my body

your hair was up in a rubber band encore
vampire neck ready
and although your breasts were small I saw them curve
the front of your top an everyday
promises children make to mothers that they’d never keep
they came out of your mouth
my mouth biting down on my cape
the taste of his blood and borrowed ufo’s
some blues so pale that they eventually seem gray
or that day I saw you walking when you didn’t see me
no one did
my time was up
but I left some of myself in him
a broken-hearted cliché of a kid
bound in arms and feet