Robin Came Home; Batman Was Away

A Poem by CLBombay

This is what I call 'prose-etry.'

Robin came to his home tonight; walked into the apartment alone for the first time in months.

Usually he enters the room with the Batman as they strut their way into the home on the outskirts of Gotham. They're trying to save the apartment for themselves without Robin's conservative parents knowing of the cohabitation; not to mention that Alfred is unaware of the fact that by night, after the evening arrests, Batman and Robin run away to a modest apartment. They leave behind the basement filled with million dollar machines for days that those things matter.

Not only is Batman the only one Robin doesn't mind being the sidekick to, but Batman is his lover that the city of Gotham, most of Robin's friends, don't approve of since it is such a progressive, male relationship in the age when they should probably be thinking more about the Joker's flair of threats from the playing cards that are slid under citizens' doors.

As usual, Robin does not have much time to think of the reasons as to why Batman did not come home tonight. Or why Batman texted him odd, one-word messages on his new Apple Watch that comes quite handy when relaying important information to Batman on the man he just punched in the face. There are more important things he must be thinking about, like what his next job would be if Gotham really did burst into flames, how he will pay the rent at the apartment when he obviously was not given the same money Batman's parents had, how the next thief will be stopped, or how exactly the Joker got those scars...

In the midst of everything that had been in Robin's head, Robin suddenly sat down on the leather couch that uncomfortably rubbed against his spandex. For the first time in a long time, he thought about Batman's absence and how the last time Batman didn't come home, he was a different type of hero; one where you couldn't tell he was the savior of Gotham. How Batman was found at the bar annoyed at Robin for not drying the bat suit correctly and for stupidly not remembering his parents' anniversary of their passing.

Robin then thought of how the night before, Batman had twirled his hair and told him there would be no city even without Robin. How they held each other and knew everything was going to be okay. But tonight Batman was absent and Robin sat on the couch; but although the heroes' lives were not easy even beyond the justice fighting, Robin optimistically knew Batman would eventually continue to be last night's Bruce Wayne.