The Starting Rail

A sand beach below dunes on a winter morning, grey sky and wind, on a wooden starting rail a biplane, two cream-white muslin wings one above the other, thin honey-coloured wooden struts and crossed wires, a double elevator on booms at the front, a double rudder at the rear, a black engine on the lower wing, two chains to two wooden propellers spinning behind the wings, lying flat on his stomach on top of the lower wing in the centre beside the engine, a man in a dark suit, his head toward the front, his back and the soles of his shoes toward the camera, a plain wooden shed beyond.