poem Krypton, a poem from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series By Chicago Poet and performance artist Janet Kuypers, krypton poem, periodic table poem, elements poem, superman poem, kryptonite poem, radioactive poem, colorless poem, odorless poem, tasteless poem, small photograph flashes poem, high-speed photography poem, colors in neon signs poem

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Krypton
Janet Kuypers
from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series
7/12/12
So, riddle me this, Batman...
(Wait a minute. That’s the wrong
superhero reference.
Let me start over again...)
Hi there. I’ve been trying
to wrap my head around this one,
maybe you can help me out.
Now, I don’t know a ton
about superhero mythology,
but Superman — he’s from
the planet Krypton, right?
And from what I’d infer,
Krypton would have a lot
of Kryptonite — Kryptonite
comes from Krypton, right?
So if Superman is from Krypton,
why would Kryptonite
be his weakness?
I mean, that’s like saying
the planet Earth has Oxygen,
but humans have an adverse
reaction to it. I don’t get it.
Okay, okay, i’m sure Kryptonite
is the ore form of a radioactive
element from Superman’s home,
but really, if they’ll name
this bad-for-residents thing
a version of the planet’s name,
it really makes you wonder
why.
And when it comes to this planet,
Krypton is colorless, odorless, tasteless...
and our own air, the stuff we breathe,
even contains fractional amounts of Krypton.
And if on Superman’s home planet
it was the radioactive ore of an element,
I guess it makes sense that here on earth
Krypton is used for fluorescent lamps,
or even in high-powered gas lasers.
But the one thing I thought was cool
was that Krypton is also used
in small photograph flashes,
and in high-speed photography
(you know, for a brilliant white light
source - good for the photo minor
who even had the license place
“J PHOTO 1” for her first car)...
And if I so got into the brilliant
white light Krypton creates in flashes,
I also then thought it was excellent-cool
that the different colors in neon signs
are often all Krypton, too...
So whether or not Krypton
is where Superman came from,
all I can say is that
Krypton has a certain brilliance
right here on earth too.

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Like Janet Kuypers’ writing on any of these links below:

Download the free chapbook with this poem titled Count Me In, with
the Periodic Table of Poetry poems.

Watch this YouTube video
of this “Periodic Table of Poetry” poem read live in Chicago 11/17/12 (Canon) at Blue Bettie’s Poetry Reading

Watch this YouTube video
of this “Periodic Table of Poetry” poem read live in Chicago 11/17/12 (Sony) at Blue Bettie’s Poetry Reading

Watch this YouTube video
of poems read from Janet Kuypers’ “Periodic Table of Poetry” series, live in Chicago 11/17/12 (Canon) at Blue Bettie’s Poetry Reading, including this poem

Watch this YouTube video
of poems read from Janet Kuypers’ “Periodic Table of Poetry” series, live in Chicago 11/17/12 (Sony) at Blue Bettie’s Poetry Reading, including this poem

Watch YouTube video
of Janet Kuypers reading this Periodic Table of Poetry poem Krypton, live in Chicago 7/24/13 at the Café Gallery poetry open mic

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