Today, we found
a photograph in the
woodshop, young sailors 
with collars unbuttoned, smiling
into the lens at Pearl
like tomorrow was as given
as sunrise. Your grin
was easy to spot,
thumb-tacked to the shop wall,
behind the clamps,
the wood glue, the spar
varnish. You seldom
spoke of the Navy, except
to laugh how boats
made you seasick. The heavy
lathe, the calibrated saws,
the drill press, moored
like silent ships.
Decades of sawdust
hid in the crevices
of the wall joists, the gaps
between the floorboards
that the broom could
not touch.

Al Ortolani is the Manuscript Editor for Woodley Press in Topeka, Kansas, and has directed a memoir writing project for Vietnam veterans across Kansas in association with the Library of Congress and Humanities Kansas. He is a 2019 recipient of the Rattle Chapbook Series Award. After 43 years of teaching English in public schools, he currently lives a life without bells and fire drills in the Kansas City area.