By Simon Armitage
Batman, big shot, when you gave the order
to grow up, then let me loose to wander
leeward, freely through the wild blue yonder
as you liked to say, or ditched me, rather,
in the gutter . . . well, I turned the corner.
Now I’ve scotched that “he was like a father
to me” rumour, sacked it, blown the cover
on that “he was like an elder brother”
story, let the cat out on that caper
with the married woman, how you took her
downtown on expenses in the motor.
Holy robin-redbreast-nest-egg-shocker!
Holy roll-me-over-in-the-clover,
I’m not playing ball boy any longer
Batman, now I’ve doffed that off-the-shoulder
Sherwood-Forest-green and scarlet number
for a pair of jeans and crew-neck jumper;
now I’m taller, harder, stronger, older.
Batman, it makes a marvellous picture:
you without a shadow, stewing over
chicken giblets in the pressure cooker,
next to nothing in the walk-in larder,
punching the palm of your hand all winter,
you baby, now I’m the real boy wonder.
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I had plans with Cheryl on Saturday that kept changing because of the weather. We were going to go to a farm spring festival near Richmond, but they canceled the event due to expected thunderstorms. So then we were going to go to Hillwood and then to see Shazam!, but the traffic on I-95 was so bad that by the time she got here, we decided it made more sense to go see the bluebells and turtles by the canal, so we did that -- at least the rain didn't arrive here till late!
My parents met us at the movie theater for Shazam!, which is definitely in my top 3 DCU films -- rather dark and a bit slow to start, but then fun and funny once it got moving. I'm not sure I loved it more than Wonder Woman, though it's definitely better written and didn't have the plot holes of Aquaman. After the movie my parents took us out to dinner at Nordstrom's cafe. Then we came home, Cheryl headed back to Virginia, and Paul and I watched some episodes of The Tick.
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