GARDEN PAST

the boy bouncing the tennis ball
off the bungalow apex
got tired of chasing it roll down the lawn
and
nervous of hitting some imagined precious thing
he
replaced its brand-less turf in the wooden clothes peg box

he swings on a rusting flaking white pole on the old porch 
the kitchen door is long bricked up
and
the concrete steps still there
go nowhere now

he 
thinks
the dead porch
should be much much more exciting
that
it
is

so slowly he goes back inside