Worn Gear Remembers
FIELD NOTE No. 010There’s a reason it’s hard to throw old tackle away.
Not because it still catches fish.
Because it remembers.
The paint worn off the head.
The skirt thinned by a hundred casts.
The hook sharpened one more time.
A new jig is full of possibility.
An old one is full of stories.
You don’t remember every bass you caught.
But you remember the evening you stayed out too late.
The kid in the back of the boat.
The shoreline where the bite finally turned on.
The trip you still talk about years later.
Somewhere along the way, the lure stopped being equipment.
It became a record.
Worn gear remembers what we forget.
— Esker