Real Thing

The Real Thing

 

 

 

(for Matt Thornton)

 

 

 

 

Henry Cavill makes quite a Superman.

I once shook hands, though, with the genuine

And superhuman article.  My plan

Was unformed, but I wore a cocky grin

And challenged the serene Kryptonian

To a test of sheer strength.  The thunder rolled—

And he could destroy worlds let me win.

My victory, though false, was bright as gold.

I shall remember it while growing old.

Such fictions, fans, enable us to live.

Shamefully stupid, I was proudly bold.

From fact I may have been a fugitive—

But, after he had winced, he shrugged and smiled,

Happy to see me victor, though self-styled.

 

 

 

 

–Tom Riley

Superman

Superman

 

(for Matt Thornton)

 

His greatest challenge isn’t kryptonite

Or Mr. Luthor’s latest ruthless scheme.

It isn’t falling from a lunar height

Or being on a troubled superteam.

For Superman, the challenge is to seem,

In a world full of weaklings, slow and frail,

One of us, not in any way extreme.

Clark Kent is always just about to fail—

And, if he does, then Terran types will wail

The lamentations feared by superears.

Broken by accident, they’ll rise to rail

Against him, supercause of all their tears.

The thanks I offer him are vast and free:

He hasn’t yet annihilated me.

 

 

–Tom Riley