Letters From Batman

Playing Batman and Robin is a lot different When the Riddler is your Stepfather And simultaneously an alcoholic and pedophile When your secret mission is to keep him From bringing heroin and *********** To Gotham city Your mother wanted to save you both But Catwoman captured her And held her six children hostage You tried to save your brother From the Riddler that October night But you were just nine and The Joker had you in quicksand The rope was too rough for such small hands Twenty years later you both get married And you laugh at those childhood battles Neither of you knowing That those villains were still there, The Penguin was waiting in the shadows Batman gets arrested for Statutory rape They put Department of Corrections On his fabled cape No Batbelt to help him escape II Batman sends Robin thirty-three letters Written on that yellow prison paper With those light blue lines Tells him he's found Christ Read the New Testament twice Robin pretends to be happy for him Even when he really doesn't believe him And is too disappointed to care And returned letters from his two children Hurt him in the worst way When all he wanted to do was Give them four or five dollars For Christmas or their birthday III Still in every Former Super heroes life There is a Forrest Gump/ Gomer Pyle That just takes it all in Regardless of his sin Just because he's your brother And because you love him Because you were the one that rode On the handle bars of his bike Holding the umbrella on the way to the store While it was thundering and lightning Not knowing that the real rain was yet to pour And you were the one That sailed into the wind like Mary Poppins when the bicycle stopped "Make sure Mama's groceries don't drop." You open those letters Because he was one that you looked up to When there was no father to answer your call And a twelve year old make-believe father Was better than none at all Because he built you a ten feet basketball court Out of throw away scrap wood It wobbled when you shot the basketball But he did the best he could And you were the one that used to ruin his fishing trips By getting your hook snagged every ten minutes And he would still ask you to ruin his next trip a week later And he would walk in the dirty lake to un-snag your line Because you didn’t like getting your clothes dirty or wet You don't tear up those those letters Because he was the one that Shared those stupid What-are-we-going-to-do-now-looks At your mother's funeral And you hated it when his kidneys failed And he was only fifteen And he couldn’t fight bad guys anymore And you both swore never again To wear those stupid capes Your heart failed when he was charged with rape You open those letters because When you can't sleep or rest Nothing like a game of Russian Roulette Ignoring the voices in your head The next letter is the one you’ll regret IV But hidden in those letters Between the lines of Those religious rants Somewhere Between the Johns The Deuteronomies and the Acts Were those unknown facts That never made it to The courtroom Was never read by the DA or judge The DNA that got lost by Vice The bloody tissue misplaced by The evidence clerk The real trial was in those letters And you learn that he wouldn't Tell the Judge the real truth Waived his right to a trial Because he didn't want his kids To end up in Foster care. And Robin wasn't there And he broke his promise To never ever play hero again? They gave him fourteen years For another person's sin We could have put those capes on one last time We could have beaten the Joker And put him and the Riddler on the run Could have shot Cat Woman with our toy guns After five years in prison Batman dies at forty-one And Robin has to go on And it sucks that you left All the clues with me And I can't even use them to set you free The rape you confessed to Was never what we all believed it to be And somewhere in Gotham city The Joker, Penguin and Riddler Are still running around free Epilog Goodbye Batman Growing old with you Would have been better But the best of you remains In these thirty-three letters