Gardner

The corner Dunkin Donuts every Saturday

And grape Bazooka Joe bubblegum on Sundays 

Drives past Maki's and Nichols and Stone 

Afternoons at the bank with the metal minute man

That tiny yellow library with Memphis Design chairs 

A hundred-year-old chocolate store 

The pond where I learned to swim 

And the theater where I saw my first movie 

The Cumbys is gone, and so is Pleasant House of Pizza

The chair remains, once the largest in existence

Sometimes this little city felt like the entire world




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