Otherguy from Otherguy by Harrison Demchick

There’s someone I’m expected to be:
the hero on the TV screen,
the suit, the stare, the gleam, the smile,
the textbook man in textbook style.

You know the type: a man in tights
who looks and acts and feels just like
the image we’re raised to glorify.

He will be your Superman
and I’ll be Otherguy.

It’s all about the cape, it would seem—
a panel in a comic book scene,
each line repeated from TV,
each action choreography.

Words from his lips come from the script
and fall to you so eloquent
perfection would be hard to deny.

He will be your Superman
and I’ll be Otherguy.

I can’t work the crowd
or leap a decent bound;
this cannot be denied.

I could dress that way,
a red and blue cliché,
a panel-bordered lie.

I’ve got no X-ray stare;
can’t fly through the air.
I just stand by your side.

There’s superheroes, fakers, and me,
the dork who runs on sincerity.
There is no model I’m based upon
and when I’m sold, I’m forever gone.

I’ll never be the guy you see
extolled in our society
but I’m the one with head held up high.

I shouldn’t have to compromise
to be the hero in your eyes.
To hell with cut-out Supermen.
Call me Otherguy.

• Pop
• Smart pop
• melodic
• pop rock
• power pop
• rock
• Hyattsville