fishing summers away

as kids,

we fished

away our summers,

if we weren't playing ball

in the street.

a group of us

would dig

up earthworms

in the

soggy back yard

and take

our cheap poles

and spinners

down to the Potomac

river

to catch catfish

and perch,

carp

and eels.

casting our lines out

into

the filthy river,

downstream from the Blue Plains

Sewage Plant,

using lead

weights or bobbers.

sometimes we used pronged

hooks

to snag the herring

when they ran.

we never ate the fish.

most we're sick and scabbed,

weak

and cross-eyed

as they struggled

against our

skinny arms reeling

them to shore.

we threw them back, or

cut the lines.

especially with eels,

and catfish

whose teeth would snap

at our fingers.

it was a long day,

but we were almost always

home for dinner,

almost always on time.