a white picket fence
bordered the backyard
of my childhood home,

a neatly trimmed hedge
my father planted himself
framed the front,

there used to be a pine tree,
it was replaced with an artificial
fish pond a decade ago,

the house was yellow,
not musty or vibrant,
but like a sunflower

with a dark green door
atop seven steps
leading to the front porch

that used to leak rainwater
into our pots and pans
whenever a storm came.

i used to have a telescope
stationed in my bedroom window
to observe the bank across the street,

there were two lenses,
one magnified the zoom
while the other inverted the image,

i remember watching people
work at their desks attached to the ceiling,
but it just made my head hurt.

when the bank would close at dusk
i would tilt the telescope
to glance at the night sky.

i always searched for Mars,
i sometimes claimed to have found it
but it was probably just space-junk.

that same telescope now rests
collecting dust in my basement,
searching for stars amidst forgotten treasures.