Friday, April 18, 2014

Albert Kapikian: The Photoengraver


for Zareh Kapikian (1898-1989) and
in memory of Albert Zaven Kapikian (1930-2014)
The ferries weren't running
to the island, Ellis Island,

because of the wind. So turning
from the river

we were
finally granted

a glimpse
of the photoengraver

here–
The city

appeared as if in a negative
of a line drawing

before us. The overlapping
plates of shadows

cleansed the sensitive
to light

sensitized metal
of the skyscrapers

glinting against the copper
metal screen

of the sky. So
this is what he saw

you said
this is what your grandfather saw

when he arrived–
the slow, sweeping shadows

only the painstaking
could manage to see–



those shadows
those same shades

now moving alongside the office buildings
and disappearing

into the pressing
clouds


Albert Kapikian, our winner for the adult category, lives in Maryland.

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