The Last Fuselage

A tall assembly hall at an aircraft works near Dresden on an autumn afternoon, pale daylight from high side windows, the long fuselage of a jet airliner on wooden trestles, bare unpainted aluminium in a matt silvery finish, dense rows of rivets across the panels, a rounded nose cap with a conical tip, a row of small round cabin windows, a side door open with its frame primed pale green, a golden-yellow engine nacelle cone on a stand in front, a worker in a grey work coat seen from directly behind, face turned fully away, on a wooden ladder holding a rivet gun to a panel, every surface plain and unmarked.