Down at the early morning stream
where dad
took his bucket for
minnows, and I watched
over at the rundown-looking
highway store
where dad would buy styrofoam cups
filled with black dirt and
earthworms
I would get a soda,
he would get beer
and then on the bank while the cool morning
started to warm, I would catch
bluegill
after bluegill
I saw so many of them, the bluegill,
their blank faces, I worried
about
their spines but dad showed me
how to brush them back
when you took hold of
the
slimy scales
and removed the hook
and the bluegill was tossed back
because
we were fishing
for something else.
Photography by: Jonathan Zerger on Unsplash
