The boy leans forward with his hands on the soil,

his legs bent, his feet off the ground

except for his tippy-toes.

He is ready to bolt like a sprinter.

But his head tells a different story.

With his neck overextended,

tilted to one side,

he gazes in the distance.

Is it an intense stare?

Is he just observing attentively?

No. His body denotes nerves.

His body exhibits tension while

his head exudes calmness.

One body, two tales.

He is actually peeking, that’s what he is doing.

He does not want to be seen

as he is watching something he is not supposed to.

Something he has been told countless times not to.

And yet, he still goes and does it anyhow.

So what is he doing…?

He dreams.

He dreams despite the intense lights

coming out of the barn in the distance.

His neighbor, a funny looking and sounding hermit,

builds homemade rockets and sends them high up into the sky.

The boy dreams about the magician farmer

that makes the impossible and improbable real.

He wonders at his stubborn & sheer determination,

in spite of his rockets failing again and again.

The boy marvels at his creativity and unlimited energy.

‘That’s what I want to be,’ he reasons.

‘I want to reach the stars, the planets.

I want to fly into space & the universe.’

‘Through him I’ve learned that anything is possible,

even though at home I am told its’ not,

even if I am forbidden to watch,

even if those close to me don’t know what is to dream.’

The boy leans forward even more,

He visualizes the life ahead of him,

He is already living in the future.

He knows what he wants,

He knows where he is going.

And his journey begins right there,

kneeling on a dirt field,

while peeking at a forbidden rocket factory in a barn

of an unlikely farmer-rocketeer;

it begins with an improbable

and seemingly impossible dream

from a boy in a picture.