This was written and published when I was in 9th grade in the Cougar’s Scratch, the school newspaper of Curundu Junior High School in the Panama Canal Zone. I think this kind of thing you can write only when you're very young and still quite starry-eyed, if you'll pardon the pun.

The Universe

If you go to outer space,
You'll find your dreams come true . . . .
Something different every place,
All of it for you:

Twirling, spining balls of light
Upon the inky sky,
Flaming fireballs in the night,
Comets streaking by;

Rockets flying past the moon
Beyond the Sun and Mars,
Flying, speeding, hoping soon
That they could reach the stars;

It doesn't matter where you go,
You'll never reach a wall,
It just seems to flow and flow . . . . .
The Universe holds all.