Fall 2007
Superman
I live with a man who says there’s always enough love. I tell him
to hold me in his automatic arms. Good robot, I coo. He
says loving is fine if you have plenty of time. Do we have plenty
of time, I ask. The persistent hum-fuzz breathing in the
background begins to fade. Birds take time off. Superman
sneezes. He says I am kissing material, very huggable. This
makes me blush. I swell at the thought of his
super-latives. His house is very appealing with its tall
entryway, stone foyer (please pronounce this “foy-yea”, and speak it in
a loud whisper into my ear; it makes me crazy to hear the French
stubble). Superman lets me use his lathe, his boom truck if I
want. Power and tools. Hands so strong. On his
property, he has a barn out back that I paint in, up in the
hayloft. But then superman and I hit hard times. He says
that our relationship is based too much around I, I, I. What do
you mean? Self, self, self. We’re monomaniacal, he
says. I thought that was Cyclops, I say, trying to be funny, but
I want to beat his prime-colored ass. Sometimes superman has
super bad breath. Birds come back. I am up in the hayloft,
packing up my oils and superman is gone. He won’t be coming
back. There has been a resurgence of lex luthors in the
sewers. There is always enough love, I say again to myself, and
know he is right. I swirl paints on a palette, somewhere in New
Mexico. Harshness espoused with fertile dryness. The scent
of oils rising to my nostrils. I lift my brush. I let slip
a sigh. Color explodes in what I have lost, what I have gained.
Jefferson Navicky lives in Portland, Maine where he
teaches writing at Southern Maine Community College and curates the
Vermillion Performance & Writing Series. His chapbook, Map of
the
Second Person, appeared in 2006 from Black Lodge Press.
"Superman" was inspired by a conglomeration of "Superman" by
Laurie Anderson, "I, I, I, I" by Steven Williams and "The Professor and
La Fille Danse" by Damien Rice. I wanted to explore what would
happen
if Superman dated a painter, and the painter got fed up with him.