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Sunday 4 December 2011

Flame Boy

A fan from his first appearance,
smitten by his sheer flamboyance -
and his talking pet flamingos,
I believed that early issue when he knelt
beside an orange tinted Orinoco
to play with the electric eels,
saw nothing surreal when green flames licked out
from hair-line, elbows, knees and heels,
accepted that the shocks had changed
some unknown organ in his brain,
that now for ever he would be
a tinder box with in-built spark,
a walking conflagration.

I didn't think he'd gone too far
in shaking hands and squeezing out
a small inferno from his palms
to scare the baddies half to death -
with much collateral damage done.
A hero can do anything! "Top Kid!" said I.

The school play gained enormously
from Flame Boy as the dragon - though
a tad unfair on George, I thought:
he lost out for the first time ever.

And I loved it when his Nan was a hundred and some-
thing or other, and he blew all her candles
(not out, but to set them alight - not one did he miss)
though they melted and ran all over the cake - ran
better than some of these lines I should say!

Yesterday's prompt on dVerse Poets was an invitation to write on a character, real or imaginary, from a comic. Flame Boy is an invention of mine.

20 comments:

Claudia said...

ha - your lines run pretty flame-fueled dave...great flow to this... and cool invention of flame boy with a hint at all the difficulties, being a superhero and having special gifts might bring.. also loved the whole first stanza with the flamingos and playing with electric eels..cool

Tabor said...

I just finished reading the youth fiction trilogy "The Hunger Games" and am a little surprised at how this poem melds with the aura and actions of the main character, a young girl, in the books.

Jenny Woolf said...

Much better than anything in the Beano these days ! What a brilliant idea, I love it.

haricot said...

I had such image as he survived the fire that was in your last poem, and he could lighten candles with his fingers.

Tom said...

neatly done. have you designed his spandex suit yet?

Brian Miller said...

smiles...i enjoyed dave...it made me think about the odd side affects of superheroes...wanting to help he melts all the candles...bet it takes a lot of self control...and for us the reader a bit of suspension of disbelief. smiles.

Rob San Miguel said...

This is awesome

kaykuala said...

Flame Boy can be a new character and a money spinner if you play your cards right. How about it Dave!

Hank

Scarlet said...

Reminded me of how spidey came to be..eletric eels and tinder box win in-buit spark sounds like a cool supergift. Specially when you can blow all those candles ~

Enjoyed this~

Mary said...

Your invented super hero Flame boy 'takes the cake' or should I say 'bakes the cake'? A fun read, Dave.

Windsmoke. said...

Flame Boy came into being similiar to Spiderman by being altered by one of mother natures creatures. Maybe you should start a series called The Adventures of Flame Boy i reckon its worth a try :-).

Jeanne Estridge said...

Flame Boy sounds fascinating.

Old Kitty said...

Yay for Flame Boy! There's so much fun here and so much love for this super hero! Take care
x

Maude Lynn said...

This is such fun! Made me smile.

Lisa said...

I enjoyed the read and would like to meet him some day.

CMBT said...

i was grinning all the time as i was reading this post. great talent :)

Cathy Feaster said...

I like this new super hero :)

sunny said...

energetic poem, like it Mr Dave.

Dave King said...

Claudia
Very many thanks for a most helpful comment.

Tabor
Not a read I'm familiar with. Maybe I should think about it. Sounds intriguing. Thanks for mentioning.

Jenny
I must confess I'm a bit out of touch with the Beano, but I do very much appreciate your comment. Thanks for it.

haricot
Top thought - coupling this with my last effort. I do tend to find such overlaps between my poems though. I think you may find they overlap with today's as well!

Tom
Working on it, working on it! Thanks Tom, good to have you visiting.

Brian
You could develop this all sorts of ways, I think. The effort to control, the devil-may-care lack of care, the down-right anti-social etc, etc. Maybe I should stop now!

Rob
Hi and welcome Rob. Good to have you visiting. Glad you liked it. Thanks for saying.

kaykuala
Ah, now there's thought - you're saying I missed my vocation? I always thought so!

Heaven
Yup, I would mind receiving... Oh, well, perhaps not!

Mary
Bakes the cake. I like this! Thanks a lot, Mary.

Windsmoke
I'm not sure my imagination would stretch that far, but thanks for the suggestion. Much appreciated.

Jeanne
Hi, thanks for your visit. A warm welcome to you. So pleased you found Flame Boy fascinating.

Old Kitty
Will do! Ditto youself - and much thanks for your kind remarks.

Mama Zen
That's very good to hear. Thank you.

ocean girl
Welcome and thank you for your comment. Very kind of you.

Chester Mark B
Hi, A warm welcome to you. Thank you so much for your valued comment. It' good to hear that you enjoyed it.

Caty
Thank you for saying so. Most welcome.

sunny
Thank you so much sunny.

Madeleine Begun Kane said...

Very well done!