Does it torment you
not to see
what transpires, exactly,

inside the womb,
inside the chrysalis,
inside the phone booth

where Clark Kent
trades suit and tie
for spandex and cape?

Do you need to know
which instant, exactly,
conception occurs,

when those embryonic
pulses—like spark plugs
sans engine—
become heartbeat,

how soon wings appear
after the caterpillar
digests its own body?

What if you spied
Superman in his skivvies
between outfits, one foot
caught in a pant leg?

Must you know
what happens next,
how this once-vacant space

swarmed with words
that eventually settled
into a poem?

Bobbie Lee Lovell is the author of Proposition at the Walk-In Infinity Chamber (Finishing Line Press, 2017) and a co-coordinator of the Poetry Unlocked reading series. Her poems appear in several recent anthologies, including From Everywhere A Little: A Migration Anthology (Water’s Edge Press, 2019).