I’m Batman

I have hidden and watched.
I have had my back broken.
Been kicked over.
Muscles ripped open.
Terrorized.
Devoured slowly from the inside.

I have screamed publicly
For mercy from the prison of my body and mind.
I have had my skull strapped to a table.
Sawed open. Examined. Mapped.
Had brain matter scooped out, twice.
I have been poisoned.
I have been irradiated.

I have had to relearn how to walk.
Have known paralyses.
Have known fear.
Have faced my reckoning.
Have lost all hope and have regained it.
Through my children.
Through my wife.
Through my family.
Through my friends.
Through our choices.
To make a better world.

Gotham is inside me.
It is the city I create.
The energy I regulate.
The positive versus negative I ingest.
The actions I reflect.

Through each bite.
Through each word I choose.
Through each movie I view.

I choose life.