Javad Tabaian, the artist engraving on metal, Isfahan, 2011

 

The Engraver

By Majid Naficy

In Memory of Ezzat’s Father


At the threshold of the Revolution
With a magnifier on your eye
And a chisel and a hammer in your hands
You bent your back for hours
And engraved joyfully
The frowning face of the ayatollah
Tap by tap
On a copper plate
And hung it on the wall.

Alas, three years later
In Railroad Park
You sat next to me in grief.
You put on your eyeglasses
And read me your daughter’s will
Word by word.
I heard in your voice
the sound of bullets
One by one
And told myself:
What’s upon us
Came from us.

May 29, 2021

https://iroon.com/irtn/blog/17191/the-engraver/