Lost in Suburbia by Van Damiani

Hot sun does not deter the boy shooting a basketball in the driveway
Past the hoop, green leaves sit still on a cloudless day 
A block to the left and three up, four polos engage in semantics
The party meanders on around them 
A boy sits in the chair on the lawn reading a book, 
At the same time eyeing the plastic table at the other end of the yard
Not for what’s on it but for those gathered nearby  
The mosquitos shatter the idyllic scene and the boy turns the page
Elsewhere, a girl looks out of her window 
The pool she did not dig lies outside 
Her thoughts betray a deep desire, as deep as the pool, 
Yet she turns from the window nonetheless and retreats to her desk
Scared of what would be exposed should she end her isolation 
In the East, there is a field 
A game is being played 
The players ebb and flow around the ball 
The parents look on, before notifications overwhelm their parental sensibilities
In the West there is a house on a street 
A gray wall marks the end of its yard 
But it can’t keep out the sounds of hundreds of cars
In the center of town, a man, always a man, sits 
He hopes to laugh at what he hears but he is always shocked,
Overwhelmed by his own self-importance 
He is run over and lost in it all 
In the supermarket, the people walk for hours,
Oppressed by fluorescent lights 
Pained as they may be, only half realize it 
The carts wander across the reflective floors 
Jumping over their own broken wheels 
In the park the children play 
Far from the slides, in their own world
The older ones scoff when they pass,
The much older ones sigh 
In one house, 
A house with an uneven yard, 
A nobody chaffs at the attitudes of those surrounding them
A garden party life is not one they will accept 
They wish to turn into somebody, anyone at all 
Lest they become what they fear the most: 
The bargain-brand, stripped-down equivalent of whatever they aspire to be 
These people are the kind where no matter their direction, can never reach the end  
To the nobody, they are simply fake 
Whether or not the nobody is correct, only they can decide