The New Adventures of Superman

1.  Superman has a new outfit for summer.   He’s not so sure about it.
The cape is short, and so is the tunic.
It bares his tummy and has little strips of fabric
like something out of a disco.
He could live with it, but—the shorts!
Oh my, the shorts.  They are cropped
so that the curves
of the buns
of the man of steel
stand revealed.
He looks over his shoulder at the mirror
and shakes his head.
He is simply too old to pull off this sort of thing.
Even his blue-black hair
has some grey (“distinguished”, Lois says)
and he hasn’t worn the spit curl in years.

2.  It is Superman’s birthday,
or so he has been told.
He more or less checked it out
by calculating back along time in space,
allowing for the relativistic contractions.
Many adoptees have this problem,
this not really knowing.
He does like the idea of a birthday party,
friends gathering, joking and teasing.
He hopes there will be cake.

3.  Superman is in a bind.
He has promised to accept two awards
on the same night
an ocean, a continent apart.
The steel trap memory of the man of steel
must have let this one get away.
Of course he’ll fly as fast as he can
but he hates to win and run
and he’s not so comfortable any more
flying at night.