Lizzy Burnam 🐞

“Nightcrawlers for sale”

The letters themselves wriggling 
like black worms 
across a white post 
on the side of the road

I don’t stop 
and I don’t slow down 

The nightcrawlers 
stored in a bed of crushed eggshells
and maple leaves soaked in rainwater 
will make good bait 
for a fish worth catching 

But I only have one heart 
and the hook is already in it

The nightcrawlers 
were the catch 
before they were the bait 

Plucked from the earth
by tip-toeing thieves
after sundown 

I think I can be friends 
with anything that bleeds 
but does not die