Behind the building downstairs, outside
next to the laundry room,
they put up a hoop on the tree
and we’d play a bit of basketball, me and my friends.
We’d shoot, play Horse, two on two, whatever.

Because there was a building on one side
and a wall tight on the other,
we could sometimes bank shots.
I had a home court advantage,
since I played there often,
but because I was uncoordinated,
I still wasn’t very good.

Playing with Barry, a head taller than me,
I tried to bank a shot on the building side
and broke Ernie’s window.
Ernie was the building’s super
and would sometime’s watch us play.
If he was home at the time,
he’d be out any minute to beat hell out of us
for breaking his window.

It seemed we had a minute
before we were gonna get smoked.
Barry lived in the building too,
so we went upstairs looking for the super,
to inform him of what went down.

We found him on the fifth floor
and he took the accident pretty calmly,
said we didn’t have to pay for anything.
Relief!

I don’t know about Barry,
I didn’t play down there for a long time afterwards
and I aimed straight for the hoop after that.