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Photo by Carolina Hinojosa-Cisneros, 2014
Harlem, NY |
And there a concrete
figure of a man stands still
He knows not
of me nor I of him wrapped in shadows
Two humans
in the space of a riddled sidewalk
staring into
each other for a moment not too soon
then through
each other to be alive on the other side
He is captured
in my lens, yet my lens has focused up
My eye is
still focused on him, my camera lens
transfixed upon the famous Apollo and
my eye
adjusts on the figure of the man standing
still in
front of me stapled into the Harlem sidewalk
My camera
beeps three times to focus on what it
believes that
I want it to focus on neon Apollo and it misses
the man upon
the sidewalk who is now
coming
toward me with a hand outstretched snapping
snap, crack,
snap, crack to the rhythm of a song only audible to him
The couple
behind him stare into their program
unsure if
they are at the right place – yes, it’s the Apollo
Fingers
poised at the slot that marks 9:00 p.m.
standing in
Harlem ready for the next show and
the man’s music
fades out as conversations surround
Tap, snap,
creak, squish, breathe, snap, crack, snap, swroosh
The man
alive on the other side of me.
