23 Aug 2018: "Boy" by Nina Belen Robins

Boy ​Somewhere there is a man who bought the VERY first ever issue of Fantastic Four from the awkward kid up the street for a nickel. An awkward kid who didn’t have Joe DiMaggio baseball cards, or signed baseballs or Saturday afternoons playing catch with his dad like the guy he sold it to. Just a bedroom where he got to hang out with Superman and The Flash. His mom and dad downstairs wondering, what’s wrong with this boy that he doesn’t have friends? It must be the comics. Better make them leave. They didn’t see the belt tied to the back of a chair and around his neck those three afternoons, the crab apples being thrown across the yard at school. Super heroes swooping down To catch him. Just a bookshelf filled with comic books emptied in one afternoon. Superman kicked out of the bedroom, The Flash sold to the kid next door, Fantastic Four spread out on another table. A boy clinging to a cliff. A window. Flashing a batman light. Fifty nickels in his pockets dragging him down toward the waves.