Superman

Superman never asked to be born.

Superman never asked to be the
strongest man in the world. he flies through the air

taking potshots from the curious evil below; even the vast
uncharted wilds can’t offer a true hiding place for the man of steel.
scientists
test strands of his hair, bend needles against his flesh, trying to
determine if one born
of man can dent the one born of steel. never impatient, the
man of steel sits through one humiliating test after another, breathing
in air

that tastes as through it’s been filtered through a tin car, takes big
breathes of the sterile atmosphere of the labs so the men of science

can measure his pulse, lung capacity, etc., etc. born
on a world where he could be normal, only to have it destroyed, the
man of steel endures these tests, allows himself to be treated like a
freak, taking to the air
occasionally to fight crime, to use his own body as a battering ram to
hold back giant
asteroids from colliding with his adopted home, politely extricating
himself from scientists

always minutes away from figuring out who and when and why he was born.

Holly Day is a journalism instructor living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with fiction and poetry publications most recently appearing in Big Hammer, The Long Islander, and Darkling. Her most recent book publications are Music Theory for Dummies, Music Composition for Dummies, and a biography of Columbian pop star Shakira.

Find more by Holly Day in the Author Index.

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