catalpa worms

when I was a child
perhaps sometime in 1948
my father would take me fishing
on clear lake in indiana
where we had a cottage
we stopped on the way there
to collect catalpa worms
on a farm whose owner
my father knew
there was this big blooming tree
of the trumpet-creeper family
covered with caltapa worms
plentiful for the taking
we put them in an old
coffee can where we had put
some leaves and twiggs
when we got to the lake
dad and I got out our
old cane fishing poles
that had just the right
hook line and sinker
the old wooden row boat
dad had painted green years ago
was still tied at the dock
it had a 5-horse johnson motor
hooked on the back in case we decided
to ride around the lake
we loaded up the worms poles
live well life jackets and gas can
and unhooked the boat from the dock
fishing had begun
we were after pan fish
which we got plenty of
but now and then a largemouth bass
would decide to eat
a big jucy catalpa worm
this was quite a fight
and surely lots of fun
dad and I ate fish later
and if we had to share them we did
if the catalpa worms were not in season
dad had a contraption he made
that he plugged into an electric outlet
and stuck the metal end into the ground
where he had dumped some water
out of the ground came big night crawlers
you had to grab the end that was out
and pull pretty hard
sometime you didn't get the whole worm
they also ended up in the coffee can
the fish liked them as well
stuff like this you never forget
you just sometimes forget
to write about them