The Unsung Heroes

Heroes cannot be ordered at the drive in down the block,
but they can ask if you want an order of fries to go with your value meal.

Heroes are not perfect, flawless, or aryan in their appearance,
but they may spend 4 to 5 hours in front of a mirror preparing to pretend to be.

Heroes are not shrink-wrapped, vacuum-packed, or placed behind a plastic LIMITED EDITION seal.
However, they can be made in China.

Heroes cannot breathe underwater or see extra-long distances at night,
but they dream and fall asleep thinking of people like that.

Heroes are not printed in 124-bit technicolor ink and stapled together in books and issued out for 2.49£
They do shell out their weekly pittance for these books, though.

Heroes don't engage in fiery 1-on-1 combat with extraterrestrial foes.
They do put pen to paper to battle the all-too-human ones, though.

Heroes are not wounded by special minerals like kryptonite and don't have any adamantium fused to their skeletons.
They are caged behind a wooden board affixed to a metal seat and do battle with their .7 inch lead mechanical pencils.

Heroes don't have parades in their honor and are never presented with the key to the city by a gleaming mayor and published on newspaper covers. They make nightly emmissions and fumble awkwardly with new styles of music and art.

Heroes are not, in fact, a minority. In fact, they make up maybe half the population.
And never hear a single group appraisal.

Heroes don't start wars.
They get shot and die, and a mother crys a week after the fact.

The world won't mourn the passing of today's Heroes as they wink out of existence. Funerals won't be broadcasted,
and none of them will be called a "crucial loss for humanity."

Heroes cry where the father's can't hear them and their mothers can't help them.

They dream of a better place for themselves and impatiently wait out the days that are called the best of their lives.