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.