A Box of Photographs - Duabelas

Photograph #83

A photo of two green coconuts with the tops hacked off, sitting in the dirt beside some wooden steps. Brown ants swarm around the openings and lead off, in long lines, out of the picture.

Photograph #84

Underwater, a beautiful coral reef. Ornate and alien formations, and colours you don't have names for. Fish, like in the photograph of the turtle, only more of them, in wilder variations, with stranger shapes. And in their midst, a bright cord of silver writhing up towards the surface, banded by thin stripes of black. A sea snake. It chills your blood,  a little. On the back of the photo it says, '"Verrry poisonous but not until dead" - Ozzy'.

Photograph #85

This is a photograph of a parrot-fish, underwater.

Photograph #86

This is a photograph of a parrot-fish, out of the water. Held up in one hand by an Indonesian man, whose other hand is doing a 'thumbs up', whose face is doing a wild grin. On a table before him lie two dozen more fish, all shapes and sizes, eyes and mouths wide open in the twin shock of air and death.

Photograph #87

This is a photograph of a parrot-fish, on a plate. Unrecognisable, of course, but on the back of the photo it says, 'Grilled parrot-fish at Wiwin Café'. Accompanied by chips, vegetables, wedges of lemon and candlelight.