The Side Effects of Endorphins

Hunting Earthworms

with my Dad

on a night darker

than expected

Much darker as

lightning bugs flicker

He dug

I held the flashlight

He shoveled

I was sleepy

almost sad as

I never liked fishing

and put worms

in a day old tin can

which we used to

lure a fish to its

ultimate death

The worm forgotten

until the next day

My

Dad would forget

the unused

worms in the back

seat of the car

baked by the sun

that smell lives

forever it lingers

and the memory of

the fish that

we killed.

I remember it’s

one eye staring back

at me

with its last breath.