Little Women and The Batman: The Movie; The Good Sailor by Raquel Fletcher

Little Women and The Batman: The Movie

Their families are pleased to announce the marriage of their children

Miss Jo March and Master Bruce Wayne on June 1, 1867

Both vowed to never marry, but in each other find a hiding place, a shield –

a steely psalm, a fearless partner, a political tool to wield

Vigilantes and evildoers run the cobble-stoned streets of Gotham City.

They’ll both run for office in post-Civil War New England, pre civil society.

Their church is two solitary mortals in at dusk complicity,

a subversive feminine antidote to masculine toxicity

Or, the object of repressed sexual desire run amok

She’s virtuous, but he is a caped antihero she’d like to f—-

What makes a woman give up her independence, where otherwise she strives?

Do bat signals, dog whistles, crime unnerve her? Fearful women make Good Wives

What convinces a tortured recluse to mend his ways, where once resigned

Do bat signals, dog whistles, crime get tiresome? He seeks softness, peace of mind

A union of opposing genres, an unlikely match lighting a flame

Their fire takes the classics down; he kisses the bride, she changes her name

The Good Sailor

I swabbed the decks,

scrubbed the bulkheads

I loaded muskets

and fired cannons

the captain, he

charted a new course

every time the wind

changed, I

climbed the mast

adjusted the sails

I felt alive when

the breeze touched

my face through rocky

waves and storms

I kept my head

down and the ship

upright, as the captain

he assured, assured

us trusting crew

the shore was not

far off, so I stood

behind him, hoping

for smoother seas

he thanked me

for my service

for my unwavering

loyalty -- all my

sacrifice – away from

home, I said,

I have no regrets

He shook my hand

then shook his head

and cast me overboard