They call them The Astronauts
They camp in yards and sleep on cots
Race their bikes to world ends
Build secret forts in hidden bends
Covered in their beds at night
Read Crusoe by secret light

Beneath the cover of the dark
Get together in the park…
Through the fence
Into the woods
Past a clearing
Stashed the goods
Built a tunnel to the dump
They build robots out of junk

One day at school during a game
They found their lives forever changed
Playing soccer in the hall
A kick too hard sent their ball
Out the door into the trees
Where something strange was under leaves

There a tree but with a sheen
Like none of them had ever seen
It was felled some years ago
But still it held a faintly glow

They tucked it back there under grass
And quickly scurried back to class
After school they rushed back down
To dig deeper underground

They revealed a U-S-A
With stars and stripes in an array
It had wings and booster sockets
They had found a long lost rocket

Still unsure how it could be
That the rocket was a tree
They set out
To let it free

They worked at night
By campfire light
Carting goods
From the dump
Into the woods

A washer door
An old stove pipe
Slowly brought it
Back to life

When they finally climbed inside
They could not believe their eyes
The screen and unknown faintly glow
Now read out “All Systems Go!”

Night wore on and it ran late
They knew then that they should wait
All rushed home that Friday night
And tucked back in without a light

When sun awoke on that weekend
They rushed right back to their new friend
Spokes howling and brakes hissing
When they got there it was missing

Leaves and twigs formed a trail
To the clearing they turned pale
In the field it could be seen
The ground was burnt and ringed bright green

During their slumber, in the night
The rocket walked to its launch site
Lit its fuel and blasted off
Amongst the stars and space aloft

Where it went they never knew
It held their thoughts though as they grew
Each night they all looked up with hope
They’d find their rocket in the scope

It never came, but they found things
Like shooting stars and Saturn’s rings
That taught them all to look around
Amazed by things that could be found

They call them The Astronauts
They camped in yards and slept on cots
They found a spaceship in a tree
It showed them things that no one sees