Bait for the Hook

Closing his eyes a man decides to go
fishing for a word. The worms he uses
were passed down from his father.
He’s angling for a word to impale
on his hook.He remembers the creek
they used to drive to, before his father
drowned. The fish swarmed under
the bridge like misspelled words. Farther
might have meant father. Shadow might
have been son. Nights his son can’t sleep
he casts a two-handed bridge of shadows
across the wall. The figures that totter
at its apex lace their fingers
into a fist before they jump.