Dog Days

His hair was dark, in messy curls,

He said, “I’ve come to save the world.”

It was half past two, but crime doesn’t sleep

Thank God he was there to bring us relief

He jumped on a railing, and called to the sea

“Be wary, wrong-doers. You shall answer to me!”

Then he left in a flash, with a spark and a hop

But it wasn’t too long before something went wrong

He fell with a bang, with a thud, with a scream

And then a vile villain rose from the sea

“Wa-ha-ha!” he said. “Is that the best that you have?

I’ve killed your little hero, your so-called superman.

And now who shall fight me? Who could it possibly be?”

No volunteers spoke out. So I said, “I guess it’s me.”

I rolled up my sleeves and marched up to that beast

Who paraded in regalia around our recently-deceased

And I balled up my fists as I swung towards his face

And I knocked him straight down, knocked him back in his place

But the vile villain laughed and said, “What a surprise!

I guess women take over when all the men die.”

But I don’t like sexism, and I told him so

And I told him just where I thought that he should go

“Well, I’ll tell you what, girly,” said the beast, with a bow,

“I’ll let you live tonight if you go home right now.”

But I wouldn’t leave, I said. It just wasn’t right

To leave the city alone on that inauspicious night

So I said that I’d fight until I dropped dead

And then the villain said to me, “Girly, go right ahead.”

So I swung once, then twice, then thrice

I swung so hard I saw dancing lights

Then I realised he’d hit me right in the head

He’d hit me so hard, I fell down dead

—

And I watch the city as I sit by the moon

A city that villains run, sealing its doom

But no one sees villains for quite who they are

They see them as royalty, as diamonds, as stars

They worship the ground on which beasts lay their feet

They worship them all — I could never compete

So I sit here lonely, and I sing a sad song

Because I died for a cause that could never be won

And just as I wonder what it was all for

I hear a small knock on my celestial dome’s door

And in comes the superman who died before me

The only other one who’d tried to save the city

And he sits beside me, but we don’t exchange words

Because the premise of everything seems rather absurd

We both died for nothing, we both died in vain

We both died for people who don’t remember our names

We both died to save them from the things they now seek

We both died in silence. Now, they’re out of our reach.

In Red

He swoops from the sky, in a flurry of red

My dream superman, who flew straight from my head

I lie there at nights, wondering if he is near

But then I wake up and realise nobody’s here

He’s only a dream, a thing I imagine

When I feel alone, or my pride had been damaged

Then I close my eyes, and I hear the crowds roar

When my hero in red saves the day one time more

I cannot neglect him, however strange it may seem

For it was I who made him, and I made him for me

He saves me from evil, from villainous schemes

Everything that he does, he does it for me

We fight for the world, when I’m wrapped in a dream

Though I know, even then, things aren’t as they seem

Because then I wake up, where I’m sleeping alone

So close to Earth, yet so far from home

Where all of my battles I face on my own

Because that is my life: I live it alone

But sometimes, in shadows, I fancy I see

My superhero smiling, watching over me

And that gives me courage, and that gives me hope

And I find the strength to move on, to cope

And, when I get home, I sit at my desk

Pull out a pencil as if this were a test

Get myself ready, and smile as I write

“Once upon a time, in the middle of the night,

There was a strange man, dressed only in red

Who visited me, as I slept soundly in bed…”

Samurai Fred

Under the lamplight, he catches my eye

The ten-foot, bearded samurai

But he doesn’t see me, he just looks straight ahead

With a look in his eye that fills villains with dread

His real name is Fred, but we don’t call him that

He’s too tall and imposing, too agile, too fat

When he walks down the street, even cars swerve aside

No one crosses his path; nothing ruins his stride

And then, when night falls, the samurai leaps

From building to building to catch burglars and thieves

He watches the city, with the eye of a friend

And we know Samurai Fred will be with us to the end

The Batman

Like the Caped Crusader himself you

Fly into my dreams and arrest my train

Of thoughts just before it flies of the cliff but

As soon as the sun touches my eyes I

Find that you’re gone, just a shadow in my

Imagination, another ghost in my past.

It’s five seconds to midnight, and all of my lights

Are flickering as the bombs count down my final

Seconds of living and you’re battling the Joker on

Top of the building and I wonder if you can see me all the

Way down here, if you even know me or care that

It’s my life you’re fighting for even though you’ve

Never met me and I only see you in my dreams.

But you’re too late, I’m already broken, the

Shards of my soul have been scattered by a different

Villain, and there’s nothing left for you to save but the

Ashes that could fit in a pill bottle if you really tried.

So fly into the night and save some other girl because

This one’s already broken and her love is broken, too.

I’m just another broken dreamer waiting at the

Window for a superhero to appear, but no superhero

Wants a girl whose too far gone to ever be whole again.