Comebat Backman (All is forgiven)

I still check the dark street corners

Amongst fading flowers and crowds of mourners

For flapping swathes of black and blue

But these days it seems  there’s no sign of you.

For us mere mortals, things are rotten

It seems to me that you’ve forgotten

It’s your place to right our wrongs

And hear your exploits hailed in songs.

But lately I’ve noticed it’s been a while

Since you brought any baddies home to trial

Are you getting old, do you walk now with a Kane?

Has all of that battling left you in pain?

Or has middle age spread and too much fast food

Made you lethargic and less in the mood

To fight our injustices and settle our scores

Or is the man in the street now a lost cause?

But then you’re human too just like me

Probably turned on your telly and been able to see

That your supervillain and nemesis is now long gone

You’re the last of your kind, the only one.

Unable to be anywhere at a glance

You’re not Superman, you haven’t a chance

When bad things happen everywhere on the globe

You’re probably napping in your comfy bathrobe.

When the man on the street can happily turn

And watch without feeling his neighbourhood burn

There’s no mushroom cloud warning to cover your head

The suicide bomber makes sure you are dead.

Without rambling monologues, the plan can proceed

These terror attacks will always succeed

There’s no spandex and dayglo or capes to be seen

Not even a jacket in camouflage green.

You just sit back and relax and recall the days

Of heroes and villains and unending praise

This isn’t a story which just needs amending

For It doesn’t bode well for a comicbook ending.