Albert Kapikian: Notes on a Newborn Sleeping

For my nephew
Alexander Zareh Kapikian

You command our attention
Just by the tremor of your lips
Or by the beauty resulting
From the balanced and harmonious
Arrangement of your fingertips
As they reach for something
You must have seen
When you were feeding
Before you got drowsy
And your eyes closed
To your mother
But not to the world
Developing behind them
That you transmit to us
With your astonishing facial expressions
And all they communicate
Depict and describe


That we can only guess at
And infer by the depth
And extent of our love




Albert Kapikian lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. A seminary and law school graduate, he was once posted to the White House for the National Archives. His poems have appeared in the Graham House Review, the Washington Review, Elysian Fields and other publications.This poem has previously appeared in Ararat Online.