Fantome Island—Great Barrier Reef

Abstract

The beach was made of coral hearts, tokens of affection from a dead village. Beautiful. White piles of bleached exoskeletons pounded into shapes of love. We crunched them underfoot as we came ashore from the yellow rubber raft, from the blue-green surf, over the sun blistered sand, to sit on driftwood logs, waiting. We could never understand what it would be like to arrive here forever, sick with a wasting sickness, never to leave, except in death. We were brief visitors.