Carl Lindner. "First Love" by Carl Lindner, originally published
in Cottonwood Review 33 (Spring, 1984), copyright by the author. Reprinted
and recorded by permission of the author.
Before sixteen
I was fast
enough to fake
my shadow out
and I could read
every crack and ripple
in that patch of asphalt.
I owned
the slanted rim
knew
the dead spot in the
backboard.
Always the ball came back.
Every day I loved
to sharpen
my shooting
eye,
waiting
for the touch.
Set shot, jump shot,
layup, hook1—
after a while
I could feel
the ball hunger-
ing to clear
the lip of the rim,
the two of us
falling through.
Guided Reading Question 1
What did the speaker love to do? Click
to answer
