X-ray vision

There's a castle in there, I know there is. The light catches it just so, and my shadow is apparent as I shoot this vision. It reveals me, even as the castle, pink and soft, hardens into visibility under the sweet attention of a setting sun.

Meanwhile, I can fly. Didn't I tell you about this before? Well, I have a cape that I usually keep out of view, because it wouldn't be wise for my type to be exposed in most circles. But, over and over, I have swept out into a hostile sky to do battles with an enemy. I've brought home the bacon, comprende? Which, of course, is nothing more than meat for the dinner table.


The city looks peaceful from up here, as I soar slowly, looking down upon my charges.

They go about their tasks, rarely aware that angels and superheroes are watching over them, not even wanting to believe in us until circumstances compel them to do so.

Have you ever been to a funeral? If so, have you noticed how some people squirm in the pews, desperately waiting for the ceremony to end?

These are the ones who don't want to confront the contradictions in their own lives just yet, and it is excruciatingly discomforting to sit still and contemplate the ending of another’s life, one so much like their own.

But the time comes when we all have to go. Soaring above you all, way up here, I have already departed your world. But of course, gravity is unforgiving, and eventually I will be brought back down to earth.

There, I'll have to continue to trudge, step by step, through our common world -- a world of loneliness, alienation, and the terrible sadness of having lost love, over and over.

Even superheroes have hearts. And we all cry sometimes, mainly when no one is there to see. All tears taste the same -- salty. The taste of the oceans from which we emerged long ago, converting our gulls into lungs, and dragging our vestigial tails behind us.

Why, I wonder, given how brief our lives are, can't we just say to one another what we all need so much to hear?

That will be my lament, as I drift slowly towards earth, my super powers drained, and giving into gravity's pull. Dust to dust. Me, you, all of us. Even love can't slow the pre-determined order of things.

-30-