An Ode to my second home - a poem

Stars twitching,
Stripes flaring.
Ramshackle buildings,
Next to glass castles.
Electricity halfhazardly thrown into the sky,
Watching over the too-big cars,
Driving on the too-big streets pushing away the sidewalks.
Large Yellow signs and larger billboards clamoring for attention,
Next to Strip Malls and impeccable yards.
Miles of well-kept gras hiding the loneliness between houses,
The cheap wood behind the pompous front steps and glued on stone facade.
States are countries apart,
Different shapes, different colours, different sizes.
Still they all have the same red-white-blue promise of unity.
Land of the privileged, admired, scared, poor, forgotten, mistreated.
Yet land of the free.
Five years I spent,
Trying to convince myself that this place meant nothing to me.
But amidst it all,
I see stars twitching,
Stripes flaring.
Among the fake smiles,
I hear real laughter.
And I realize,
How much I missed it all.

Obligatory ramble starts here :)

A bit of context to the poem thing above: I lived in the US for 2 1/2 years when I was a kid and even though that was now ten years ago it was an experience I will forever be grateful for and one that shaped me a lot in my opinion. 

I have however mentally distanced myself from the US since then, partly because it's been so long and partly because as I got older I slowly stopped viewing the country as perfect and noticed more and more flaws about it. 

However, I've been back for an extremely nostalgic summer vacation, met friends I haven't seen in ages again, walked around the town we used to live in and generally just remembered what I loved about that town and I guess also America. 

So basically,  this is a kinda crappy poem about my conflict when it comes to the country and realisation that a part of me will always love it, no matter what. 

(Also just as a rant that has nothing to do with anything above: I spent way to long trying to aligning these pictures, this always was and always will be the thing that most infuriates me about blogger)