#517: A Few Notes to Superheroes

Don’t quit your day job.
It’s good of you, to look
after us. But sometimes
I wonder if our villains
are so outsized because
you are grown so massive
with your flying and your
web-making and all
your fancy gadgets and
an armored black suit.
Which came first?
It strikes me that there
were no Jokers or Penguins
or Luthors or Goblins
until you guys came
along. You were a solution
looking for a problem.

That Flaming Lips song
about Superman made me
cry the first time I heard it
and a bunch of times since.
“It’s getting heavy. I thought
it was already as heavy
as it could be.” This is true,
now, 25 years later, as it’s
always been true, but things
seem heavier today. “Tell
everybody waiting for Superman,”
the song goes,
“that they should try to hold on
as best they can.”
The song urges us to be
patient, but the reality is
that whatever the trouble,
“it’s just too heavy
for Superman to lift.”
This about the guy who
lifted the entire planet
to safety. Today we got us
some heavy shit, as heavy,
if not heavier, than the world.

But you guys have to know
that you can’t save us–
but you might teach us
to save ourselves.
You know that we
are capable, that every
solution is within our reach,
that there are human beings
on the planet right this
minute who could solve
every thing in one or two
fell swoops. But they don’t.
We don’t need your flight,
or your webs, or your armored
sportscars and motorbikes,
what we need, what we lack,
what you might be able
to teach us, is where to find
a will commensurate to
the difficulties of living
in the 21st century.
If you can do that,
then go ahead,
quit your day jobs,
commit yourself
full time to helping us
help ourselves.