— k., the day before he sailed
1938 · k. age 22 · album iii
the eldest brother, in a borrowed cap, photographed in the lane on a thursday afternoon. on the friday he took a train. on the saturday he took a boat. he wrote four times in twenty years and then the letters stopped.
he does not look like he is leaving. he looks like a young man with a cap on, leaning into a hedge, slightly impatient. you cannot tell from a photograph who is about to leave. that is one of the things photographs cannot do.
field-note the third letter, from a port whose name has been folded out of the envelope: tell mother i am working. tell her the work is all right. tell her i will come back when it is finished. it was not finished.