"Shipbuilding in New Jersey" by John Findura

John Findura

John Findura

John Findura holds an MFA from The New School. His poetry and criticism appear in journals such as Mid-American Review, Verse, Fugue, Fourteen Hills, CutBank, Juked, elimae, No Tell Motel, H_NGM_N, Jacket, and Rain Taxi, among others. Born in Paterson, he lives and teaches in Northern New Jersey with his wife Lauren, their puppy, and a charm of finches.

Shipbuilding In New Jersey

This was never my game.
The sun beats too hard,
the wind blows too soft.
I've written you this story
more times than you've read.

Yet everything else eventually
leads to this: the smell of oak,
salt and somehow charcoal.

I place a nail between my teeth,
lift a hammer and turn towards
the wooden frame.