Where Have All the Heroes Gone? (poem)

911-type phone call:

‘Hello? Heroville?…Uh…We’re dying out here, man

Could you send out a hero like, I don’t know, Superman?

Hello? Hello? Are you still there? S**t, man!

Where have all the heroes gone?

Where have all the angels flown?

Where have all the cowboys blown?

Does anyone have the number to Hercules’ phone?

Without John Wayne, who’s gonna run the bad guys outta town?

Where are all the miracle workers?

Where are all the rain-makers?

Where are the chariots of fire?

Where is Vishnu the Preserver?

Where are the great gods of Mt. Olympus?

Have they all abandoned us?

Radio call:

Calling Captain Kirk…Come in Captain Kirk…Do you read me?

Mayday! Mayday! We need someone to save the day

Anyone, really – Superman, Spider-man, He-man, Ice Man,

Zorro, Super Mario, Batman, The Green Lantern,

Spider-woman, She-Ra, Wonder Woman…

Hell, we’ll even take Supergran!

We are in a crisis situation:

Magnitude 9 earthquakes

200-miles-per-hour hurricanes

Strange flues in the, uh, Far East region

Tigers, cheetahs, whales on the brink of extinction

A nuclear stand-off in the Middle East

Terrorists blowing everything to bits

Famines in Africa, starving women and kids,

Gangsterism, hoologanism, child prostitution

I understand in Congo there’s a serious refugee situation

We have child soldiers and urban kids packing guns…

I saw this piece on TV the other day:

A ten year old schoolboy opened fire on his classmates,

Concerned parents were tuning in for news updates…

Ten years old and he had a gun in his hand!

All I’m asking is where have all the heroes gone?

I mean, we need help…The world has lost its marbles,

You know what I’m saying? We need heroes.


(c) Alex N Nderitu http://www.alexandernderitu.com/

Buy Alexander Nderitu's prose and poetry books at: http://stores.lulu.com/NewShakespeare