note, passed to superman

sweet jesus, superman,
if i had seen you
dressed in your blue suit
i would have known you,
maybe that choirboy clark
can stand around
listening to stories
but not you, not with
metropolis to save
and every crook in town
filthy with kryptonite.
lord, man of steel,
i understand the cape,
the leggings, the whole
bqall of wax.
you can trust me,
there is no planet stranger
than the one im from.
- Lucille Clifton
The first time I read this poem I thought that Clifton was comparing superman to Jesus. I took the kryptonite to be people for Jesus and that in the end we were his downfall. people sins were the downfall. We are why he died on the cross. The 2nd time I read this poem I realized that Clifton was just talking about superman from the perspective of someone that he could have trusted but didnt know it at the time. There are many different ways that this poem can be taken and I think that was her purpose in writing this poem. She wrote it as if it were a bunch of thoughts one right after the other, all strung together.