kept by · the postmaster · the back office of the post-house
v · the undelivered. it fills, and is emptied, and fills.
iii · timetables. the routes have not changed in years.
the postmaster keeps only reference. there are no novels here, no
verse — those he reads at home, on a different shelf, by a
different lamp. he has, on a card behind the counter, the line:
"the office is not the parlour."
most read: the day-book iv,
which the parish opens with him by habit. the two volumes of
undelivered letters are also frequently consulted, with sorrow.
least read: postal regulations from a previous administration,
kept because no one is sure whether they have been replaced.
the binder rebound the day-book
twice; the keeper borrowed the
calendar three times in a year and returned it each time with a
different ribbon. the postmaster does not mind. the books are
working books. they were never meant to stay clean.
field note · in pencil, on the inside of the desk every letter has three addresses. the one on the envelope. the one in the writer's head. the one it finally arrives at. only the first is mine to read.
see also · letters · the chronicler's library · the keeper's shelf · the binder's ledger · the library