Up Into Space

There was once a boy,
Named Nicholas Claud,
Who was sitting in his flat,
Completely bored.

He looked out the window,
Of the 99th flat,
And thought to himself,
'I wonder if I can get higher than that.'

So he caught the elevator,
And went down the street,
And got to the corner shop,
But for once not for sweets.

"Hello", said the shopkeeper,
"How do you do,
What would you like today,
A strawberry chew?"

"No, not today",
Said our hero Nick,
"Do you sell manuals,
To build rocket ships?"

"Well your in luck,
I got some this morning,
What are you looking for,
This sort of thing?"

He took the book,
From the shopkeepers grip,
And looked at the title,
'Rocket Ships for Kids'.

He paid the man,
And went of home,
And flicked to the first page:
'How to build the dome'.

He built the ship,
Out of lots of stuff,
The television set,
A door, a mug.

A vacuum cleaner,
A computer mouse,
A pair of shoes,
And God knows what else.

Until finally,
Upon the roof,
Lay a rocket ship.
Built by a ten year old boy.

He got in his ship,
And blasted up high,
Further and further,
Way into the sky.

Through the troposphere,
And though the stratosphere,
The mesosphere, the thermosphere,
And up in space he cheered.

He blasted up past Jupiter,
Mars and Neptune too,
Further into the depths of space,
To mystery he flew.

He went through Andromeda,
Past millions of stars,
Through the Dark Horse Nebula,
Then thought back to his past.

He remembered his dog,
Who'd been desperate to play,
"I'm building a rocket ship,
We'll play some other day."

And he remembered his mum,
Who'd always have a smile,
And even the shopkeeper,
Who he talked to once in a while.

He remembered his park,
And his 99th flat,
He remembered the polka dot stray pussy cat.

He looked out at the sky,
And saw it black clad,
He was alone up here,
Home wasn't so bad.

So he turned back his ship,
And flew back to home,
At least there,
He wasn't alone.

So he landed on the roof,
And played with his dog,
His mum would smile,
And the shopkeeper gave him some cherry drops.

And he looked out the window,
Of the 99 flat,
And thought:
'I'm never going higher than that'.