I Don't See Heroes by Mackinley Clevinger, January 27, 2016
If there was ever a time
For a hero to appear
And right all the wrongs
And fight all the bad guys
Then that time is now
But I don’t see capes
Just people
And I don’t see colorful costumes
Just us
And villains running unopposed
Where’s the hero of the economy
To keep us regular folk safe
Where’s the hero of the environment
To keep our future bright
What happened to the heroes?
We cower in fear
Threatened by the villain’s goons.
Where are the stalwart men in tights?
The honorable women who can’t fail?
Who will fight for us?
We don’t need a hero
Tossing cars and punching thugs
Playing cops and robbers
We need a hero like us
Who understands
The thug didn’t take a billion dollars
The car didn’t poison our Earth
The goons don’t get rich off of our misery
We need a hero who knows to fight
Not who, but what.
Maybe they’ll come
If we wait
And maybe the bad guys will go away
If we wait
But I’m not holding my breath
Cause I haven’t seen a hero in a long time
But I’ve seen what they left behind.
And you have to wonder, sometimes
When they disappear, and we remain,
Did they fail us, or have we failed them?