Yesterday my son
found his Superman costume
and gave it a shake.
Out of it dropped six pieces of Lego
and an old sweet wrapper.
He untangled the cape
smoothed out the undies
and tried the costume on.

First he pushed one leg in,
then the other,
and as he did
his calves began to bulge
with the power
of his six year old self.

Encouraged, empowered,
he stooped,
and used his steel-claw fingers
to gather the waistline
then, straining, he pulled
and pulled and
pulled until
it became stuck
at the line
of his new school shorts.

Undeterred, he tried again
and again,
but each time he pulled
the costume ripped –
he pulled again
and it ripped again.
Heroic struggles take time,
he said, as the seams split
like continents separating.

Eventually he stopped
and he sat,
head on his fist, thinking
how had it come to this?
How had he,
of all heroes,
been defeated
by an age label?

But I was amazed.
Don’t you see it? I said,
Don’t you feel it?
Look how much more mighty
you have become
these past few years.

—

[link_popup id=’1536′ link_text=’Please sign up to the newsletter and get some exclusive first looks and news’ name=’Sign Up’]

You can follow Dom on Twitter or Facebook, or buy his books on Amazon or Ebb & Flo.