Origins

They all have one. There is the Spider-Man,
winsome Peter Parker, bitten, blood-let
by a radioactive – I forget.
Something happens…an alleyway…a man…
to give young master Bruce his yen
for skin-tight wear and a fetish mask.
If you see Clark Kent, don’t bother to ask,
unless you’re fluent in Kryptonian.

Fine examples but you don’t need a cape,
or a magic ring, or a gold lasso – 
there are options including just being you,
as in Auden’s vision of Agape.
No cosmic rays and no superpower,
just people finding their place on the earth,
something profound and it feels like birth
and is liked by those who bill by the hour –

though strictly speaking, keep it to yourself.
A classic trope, that the source of your might
contains the seeds of your Doomsday night,
that all weakness lies at the start of self
and so must be secret, boxed with a lid,
until the time comes for the big reveal,
a final unmasking of how you feel.
Ask not what was done but of what you did.