What a Boy Wants

Faster than a speeding bullet.
All I want is to run faster than the wind.

More powerful than a locomotive.
O.K. Also to be so strong nothing can stop me.

Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Yeah. Jump so high my shoes can't keep up.

Look up in the sky!
I want them all pointing toward me.

It's a bird!
You need glasses, nearsighted person.

It's a plane!
That's more like it.

It's Superman!
I want to wear the big "S" and fly.

Yes, it's Superman, strange visitor from another planet
What do you mean, strange?

who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond 
	those of mortal men.
Especially since I'm just a boy.  

Superman, who can change the course of mighty rivers,
Every spring I will work on the Mississippi.

bend steel in his bare hands,
I love nothing better than to bend gun barrels so they shoot
sideways.

and who, disguised as Clark Kent,
What a namby disguise! I refuse to wear glasses and the
curl in the middle of his forehead looks too much like mine.

mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan
	newspaper,
I would rather work at the New York Times.  

fights a never-ending battle for truth,
It will really be tough on days I have a kryptonite headache.

justice
I want to check things out with my x-ray vision. I bet Lois
has nice bones.

and  
Sometimes I don't feel so good about wearing spandex and
a swishy cape. 

the American way.
Do I need to waste my time doing all this crime-fighting? 
Superheroes just want to have fun, boys just want to have
fun.


(First published in the YA poetry anthology Fly Heroes - 2022)