Catching Redbugs

What if we were
sent down to the river to play
because there was a bed
of hot mortar up near the house
and our sand pile where we left
our make-shift trucks and roads

The river was fun too
We quickly found our jars and ran
to the river's edge, or the wharf

Flat on our stomachs, an arm
stretched own into the water
to catch what? a redbug, must be
a million of them, clinging
to a watery vine. Or
a lucky bug! Really felt lucky
to catch one of these
fast swimmers, or maybe
the hand will be lucky this time

And, if only we could catch
those busy little swift-darting minnows
or pollywogs -- a black circle
must be a hundred pollywogs

We filled our jars with the redbugs
Buried one or two lucky bugs
maybe -- not for all of us
who wanted to see them darting
back and forth among the red dots
and slipped one or two in
with the redbugs