Jolene Paternoster, a recent graduate of Skidmore College, lives in Northern New Jersey, where she works as a freelance editor. She has recently been awarded the Academy of American Poets Prize for a selection from her senior project in poetry. Her work has appeared in Skidmore College’s literary magazinesPalimpsest and Folio. She looks forward to furthering her studies in an MFA program in the next year.

Point Pleasant Beach in January
By Jolene Paternoster

The gull’s black tipped wings peek above the water,
bobbing metronomic in the wind.

On the shore, iced sand whips across my boots
and storm doors slam against their frames.

I came here because lately I’ve been
having trouble forgetting myself

and they all swore the ocean 
would be a good distraction.

So I stare across the graying sea.
I take the prescribed walks.

I catch glimpses of my face
in closed-for-winter store displays,

and my thoughts drown out the echoes
of shut down Ferris wheels.

I am all consuming.
But the gulls–

I eye the gulls. One flies
overhead and drops

a fishtail from its mouth.
I eat the tail.