"All Creatures Great and Small"
"Alpha"
"Babes in Smallville"
"Babysat"
"The Ballad of Trish and Henry"
"Blues"
"Bobby and Hank say 'Farewell, New York' and Other Things"
"Bobby and the Beast"
"Bobby's Casserole"
"Bobby vs. Pat Sajak"
"A Certain Face"
"Confounded Computer!"
"A Day at the Races"
"A Day in the Life"
"Dialogue"
"Dispensing the Shopping"
"The Early X-Men in Studio 54"
"Event"
"First, Do No Harm"
"For Remembrance"
"From the Dais with the Closed Coffin"
"The Good of the Many"
"Gunslinger Dreams"
"Heard No More"
"Hiccups"
"Homecoming"
"A Homely Touch"
"I Do Not Love Thee, Mr. Twinkie"
"Lamentation"
"Leadership"
"The Lecture"
"Longest Night"
"Love Is Just Another 4-Letter Word"
"Magic Breakfast"
"Making the Call"
"Midnight Twinkie Run"
"Miss April's Stars & Garters"
"The Morning Paper"
"Movies"
"Naomi"
"Neon Hearts"
"The No Story"
"Not a Creature Was Stirring"
"The Oath"
"Personal Delivery"
"Point Blank"
"The Power-Whup Girls"
"The Price of Coffee"
"Pygmalion's Silence"
"Rumble in Kitchen Stadium"
"The Shadow Inside"
"The Shi'ar Coffee Story"
"Shoot Me"
"Waiting"
"A Friend, Sleeping"
"A Small Addiction"
"Some Assembly Required"
"Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Someone Blue"
"Start Spreading the News"
"Such Sweet Sorrow"
"Tale of the Last Twinkie"
"Never Mess with a Furry Blue Genius"
"The TD2001"
"Tear Sheets"
"A Test of Power"
"Tripping into the Light Fantastic"
"Twenty First Century Guy"
"When in Rome"
"When Tomorrow Comes"
"Written from Purgatory"
"The Wyoming Pie"
"X-Men #75"
"Yummy Yellow White Surprise"
"Zero Degree Celsius"

Disclaimer: Again, none are mine - the characters belong to Marvel and these particular aspects of them to Mercutio (hope you don't mind!), and I have no permission to use either. This is a companion poem to 'Waiting' - while 'Waiting' came some time before 'Shoot Me' by Mercutio, this is intended to follow on directly from where 'Shoot Me' ended.


His face so seeming innocent,
So gently peaceful in repose,
An Impling Mischief, sleeping,
Reveals an angel's face beneath.
With laughter gone, 'tis possible,
To see the first faint lines of care,
That touch his eyes and mouth with age.
Lines of laughter, and of love,
Pain and loss and loneliness.
For his is indeed a lonesome lot,
How can a tender heart compete,
With handsomeness and brooding charm?
What price humour, challenged with
A winged angel's suff'ring guise?
Tenderness is poorly matched
'Gainst the charms of pain and power.
It saddens me, to see his hurt
The wintry chill that cools his heart,
For he loves so truly and so well,
And all doomed to waste.
Yet it does not, can not break him,
For his is strength beyond us all.
For 'tis easier to sit and weep,
Than to rise laughing from the fall.
Yet rise he does, and falls, only
To gamely laughing rise again.
I will not be crushed, he seems to cry,
I will not be broken! Take my diginity,
I prize it not, nor need its shield.
Take my pride, my power, if you can,
For I have none, and cannot miss them.
I bend, I do not break, you can not
Shatter me with words or deeds,
For I refuse angst, deny despair,
And laughing will I face you,
Though inside I weep bitter tears.
So brave and wise a heart,
All unremarked by those around,
Yet I know it and him for what they are-
And his friendship means far more to me,
Than any passing spandex love or hate.
He sleeps, trusting, innocent,
And my heart is touched and warmed thereby.
I watch, until sleep whispers to
My eyes to close, and head to nod.
Then, at last, I take him up,
Softly, that he may not wake.
He barely stirs, no murmur makes,
On my shoulder rests his head,
And I carry, once again, with care,
Bobby Drake upstairs to bed.

End