Route 29 Batman
Batman is dead
The newsfeeds say.
Leonard Robinson, 51,
liked to don the cape
and drive his custom Batmobile
visiting sick children in the hospital.
Struck down in darkness,
they say,
by the side of the road. No supervillain,
no deathtrap, no last-moment save,
just ordinary bad luck.
He made a lot of children smile
and not a few adults.
The children will miss him,
but they will be all right. Well, some of them will;
it is a hospital, after all,
and we are told we must face realities.
Late at night,
when the shadows gather,
I sneak outside.
Watching for movement,
I go to the highest point
and shine the signal on the clouds
hour after hour.
No one comes.