Here’s a poem by my old friend Eric Linder, a poet and bookstore owner. He had the Chelmsford Bookstore in Chelmsford Center for a long time and now runs Yellow Umbrella Books in Chatham, Mass., right on the main street.—PM

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Nine-Foot Hoop

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I put up a basketball hoop

at the end of the driveway.

My friends come over and laugh.

They say, Hey man, that ain’t

regulation, it’s only nine feet.

I’m almost thirty, not that tall.

I’ll never make the NBA. All I

want to do is have some fun,

maybe stuff one once in a while.

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—Eric Linder (c) 1986