Rural Route

A raft of photos in black and white, showing views of the bridge, the river, the sunbaked road in dirt, unpaved, still narrow and uncomplicated, as are the skinny children who cavort in dark bathing suits, as natural and incidental as swallows; glistening skin, gap-toothed grins, an evident delight in being timeless and free before the camera, before each other, before the world, before...

A tangle of bikes and towels; frozen visions of dives, splashes, self-conscious displays and ingenuous postures of reclining bodies in the sun-dappled shadows of a willowy riverbank of long ago; offering up as much of their youth as they can to the sun god, a willing sacrifice; scenes of a bridge, a river, a road, a childhood, a freedom now all gone: arms around shoulders, fingers raised behind heads, feet, hair, freckles, bellies, backs, silhouettes under the bridge that offered glimpses of the future.