Reconnaissance

A White Plymouth Rock rooster with clean white plumage and a bright red comb, standing upright like a gentleman in a long-sleeved white cotton shirt with a red scarf knotted at the neck, empty cuffs at his sides, beside a tall palm-trunk pole in an Indonesian village lane, a wooden hoop at the top of the pole hung with a bicycle, a white rice cooker, a pair of shoes and small red-and-white flags, red-and-white bunting strung between tiled-roof houses and palm trees under a blue sky

Red and White Since Morning

At the top of the pole hang a bicycle, a rice cooker and a pair of new shoes, and the pole has been greased since breakfast. He studies the problem from the bottom for some time, in a white shirt he intends to keep white.

17 August 2026