Remove the spectacles, scarlet letter,
and the mercurial mythologies.
Grant a mask-less moment so I may ask
the being we have named the Man of Steel:
Did it hurt when you heard that you were not
Jonathan’s and Martha’s little boy Clark,
not even a boy at all, but some thing?
Did you weep any of those salty drops
of lost trust that leak out the reddish eyes
of your youngest fans when they discover
that Santa’s really just Dad’s MasterCard?
Is that why you prefer a glasses-mask,
to hide your own tired, dried-out, cried-out eyes?
Or are tears products of man’s reaction
and lowly to higher life forms like you?