Wheeler Light
What does Batman have to do with this?
What does batman have to do with anything? What does batman have to do with justice? What does justice have to do with anything? What does justice have to do with justice? It’s just a word like bat or man but words have connotations, like, bat means scary but really bats eat fruit and sleep; I would love to be a bat. And man is meant to be strong but really men are scary and eat people and sleep and I would love to be a bat, soft and the size of your palm ready to fly but only by the light of the moon. Only by the light of the batman symbol in the sky, only flying toward the arch of a family crest over a fireplace in a brilliant manor paid for by blood money and vigilante justice. This summer see the spectacle of batman, the vigilante hybrid, made of death and fear creating justice out of symbolism. I wonder what justice has to do with symbolism, or if justice is a symbol for something undefinable, something subjective, something meditative. I wonder if justice sometimes finds itself at the bottom of the well pulling black ribbon from its throat which never ends, like how a clown pulls justice from its throat just so it can have somewhere to sleep that night. And they say to get a job that feels like a lover but what does love have to do with justice and what does a lover have to do with batman who can’t love anything but the sweet kiss of revenge even though his parent’s murderer is already dead? There is no such thing as reconciliation there is no such thing as justice there is no such thing as revenge. There are only dead families miles away begging you not to become the joke at the end of the tunnel, the blood spurting out of the flower on the clown’s lapel; begging you not to rub your red nose the wrong way. This summer everyone will be bats and this summer everyone will be dead and this summer everyone will be dead bats. Seven billion Draculas blotting out the moon whispering so loud the question asking for their stories to be seen that you can’t even hear yourself think. And by day they will look like people but by night they will look like me and what does batman have to do with anything, a vengeance addict dressed up as a hero who saves the world more than he can save himself from his ego? This summer become a bat and this summer become a hero and this summer become a searchlight searching for yourself and the reason you’re still alive. What can you give back to the world besides forgiveness? What can you forget about the world besides justice or the lack thereof? What does the lack of justice have to do with justice and what does a dead bat have to do with the moon and what do men have to do with love if they can’t love themselves before they hurt someone else? I want to grow up to be a bat small and quiet and alone in a cave with the whole world scared of me but not scared of what i can do with my money. Bruce Wayne has enough money to have an alter-ego and i have enough dignity to learn how to say my name backwards forwards sideways and upside down hanging from the ceiling of a cavern and falling asleep. At night i dream about bats and at night i dream about going to sleep and at night i dream about being a man and what it means to be summertime and laughing like a sad clown. So don’t forget to wait for the summer for the spectacle for the credit lines. This summer become a bat. This summer blot out the moon with your truth. This summer fly. |
Wheeler Light lives in Boulder, CO. His work has appeared or forthcoming in Hobart Pulp, The Meadow, and Pretty Owl Poetry, among others. He is the author of Blue Means Snow (Eyewear Publishing 2018) and Aaron's Party, a semi-fictional chapbook about loving Aaron Carter (Bottlecap Press 2018).