Hero Worship

September 14, 2023May 5, 2025 / Jeff Cann

Where are heroes born?
Grandpa, Jesus, Indiana Jones. I missed that step as a kid,
I skip that part today—no one I admire, no one to emulate.
No one to let me down.
A personal deficiency, an omission of character
Never installed by my parents, instilled by my teachers.
Irreverence fueled by neurodivergent contempt.
My cousins idolize baseball teams. Their father reveres Joe Theismann.

Vonnegut snared me
but toppled with his swan song
A Man Without a Country. Ordinary like the rest.
Commonplace as me.
And you.

Image: A rare youthful photo of Vonnegut with his ever-present cigarette (sigh). Borrowed with implied impunity from the internet.