I Feel Sorry For Heroes Poem by Mary Champion

I feel sorry for heroes.

Heroes have a hard time.
We ask so much of them
although they are only human,
then, when they can't deliver,
we get mad.
We get even madder
when we discover they aren't perfect.

Heroes have no chance
of meeting our expectations.
It's time we grew up
and lent them a hand.
It's time we stopped asking them
to fight our battles.
It's time to admit - they are only human.
Heroes have their own problems.

I feel sorry for heroes.

Heroes are a persecuted minority.
Everyone expects them to be perfect.
But they aren't of course,
any more than we are.
Heroes have a hard time trying to be heroic
when they are probably just as scared as us.

Who'd be a hero?
All us inadequates demanding salvation.
The gutter press on their trail
digging the dirt on their clay feet.
Being mocked for their shortcomings -.
comedians taking the piss
when they fail to work miracles.

I feel sorry for heroes.

They have so much to live up to.
We put them on pedestals
and peer at them through microscopes,
deface them of Facebook,
make twits of them on Twitter
and tear them apart in the tabloids.
We assume they have no fear -
but what is so heroic about being fearless?
Real heroes feel the fear and do it anyway.

I feel sorry for heroes.