NaPoWriMo 20 ~ We Write Poems

We Write Poems offered two starter lines for poems. One of them, "I'm willing to eat..." prompted this memory poem that came quickly. Like all memories this old, it is embellished. But rest assured the ingestion of worms for Rainier occured on a playground in Montana. Who says that youth is misspent?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
worms for beer

When we were 15 Mary Cullum
told my brother
that she would eat anything
for a six pack of Rainier Beer.

At Super Save Sam bought two things,
a Styrofoam container packed
with night crawlers, woodchips, and dirt,
and a six pack of Rainier cans.

“One for each beer,” he said
as he handed Mary the worms.

She stood in front
of the swing set of our youth
behind Horace Mann
where one at a time
she took out a crawler,
and with thumb and forefinger
pulled debris
from its long moist form.

Tilting her head back
she dropped them in
and swallowed without biting-
six lengthy wiggling worms.

Sam laughed, and cracked a beer for her.
She drank it down
in one long drink
and belched,
then howled at the moon
full above her head.