Walking outside in the dark

8:45 on December 9

My new chip warming up in my shallow pocket.

Walking alone to find shelter in the same old

comic book store.

Call me irresponsible

Call me undependable

I won’t call you wrong.

But when I’m cold

there’s only one place left I’d rather go

and I’ve already been kicked out.

I don’t know how to fly.

I cannot penetrate your mind.

I can’t see right through a brick wall

but I wish I could.

You used to call me Sandy Dumbrowski,

with lips like strawberry sodas,

in heaven forever and ever we will be.

Did you used to mean it then?

Patricia Birch, please promise me

it won’t end with cigarettes and convertibles in the sky.

And I’m stuck in the middle

just like Lana Lang was.

Bound to the ground

just like Lana Lang was.

So I’m walking through the aisles

bumping my hips on Bizarro

and I’m thinking about

what it would be like to

buy a Metropolis apartment with you.

Just flipping and flipping

through a dusty Action

and I thought these were only supposed

to happen every seven years

but you’re back in the Fortress again.

And I’m stuck in the middle

just like Lana Lang was.

Crushed under the Planet

just like Lana Lang was.

So if you want to call me

I’ll only answer to the Insect Queen,

thinking you’ll propose to me

in that small-town cornfield.

Pining for Superman

who thinks I’m just a girl

and maybe that’s really all I am.

Is that such a bad thing?

Sandra, Susan, help me.

And I’m stuck in the middle

just like Lana Lang was.

Bathed in kryptonite

just like Lana Lang was.

In my nightmares I

die on the operating table

and though I can see my body

I know I will force another breath.

But I’m still stuck in the middle

just like Lana Lang was.

Can’t get past Smallville

just like Lana Lang.

Lying under a cape in the dark

8:45 on January 9

My new chip cold in my palm.

Crying because they shut down the same old

comic book store.

Call me anxious.

Call me common.

I won’t call you wrong.

But when I’m cold

there’s only one place left I’d rather go

and it’s too late to show up.