Nothing to Declare

To you, at the declaration desk,

Welcome to the Storm Post Office. This letter is posted from an archive room in 1913. The title is set in charcoal letterpress slab serif on warm archival stock, and every field of the form is ruled with care. Tilt the page to the light and you will find the shadow of a window lattice, blind-embossed, readable only by fingertip and slanting light. A burnt-sienna tab crosses one corner.

The boxes marked Name and Goods to Declare are left empty. A poet once spoke up for the empty-handed: "I'm Nobody! Who are you? / Are you – Nobody – too?" — Emily Dickinson, I'm Nobody! Who are you? (1891)

In one corner of the grid a small blue-gray key has been drawn, just where it unlocks the whole form. Having nothing to declare is quite all right: come in as you are. When you want to write, we will receive it.

Nothing to report, everything to write,

Storm Post Office

1913 · The Archive Room