Dirty Blue Socks

It was raining when I left for work

It was raining and it was still dark

As I left my flat,

A girl was dropped in a fancy car

And another girl

Neighbors, students about my age

Probably from many of the nights out in town

And I walked away in the rain, slightly ran

With my head bent, not to wet my face

Thinking of the irony

Public transport is good

Sometimes unreliable and chaotic

But good

So that I caught a ‘matatu”

Not long after

Sat at the window like I always do

In no time, from the hills of mathare

Men walking upwards to the town

They are in files, disorganized files

Their hands swing in synchronized motion

They have their trousers tucked in to their blue socks

There is no telling how far, most of them have walked

But you can tell where they are going

To some low paying jobs

To cater for their unworking poorly educated wives

To provide for their malnutritioned babies

It’s dark

It’s windy

And it’s raining

The men hold umbrellas in their hands

But they do not open them,

The rain splatters on them

Drips down their arms

Down their umbrellas

And the wind blows the drops

From the hanging tip of the umbrellas

So that the men keep walking despite the rain

And the darkness covers their sweat

And their blue socks are dirty

Public transport is good

So that I get to town long before,

Long before the trekking men

It’s too early I’d complain

And it is, it’s still dark even

But not for the two old ladies

The two old ladies in reflective clothing

The two ladies sweeping the street

The two old ladies with beat up faces

More beat up than the wheelbarrows

That they collect their trash in

Our trash in

I don’t know who to ask

But am sure if I did ask

And I got the answer

It would go something like this

The girls have to ride the fancy cars

Someone has to ride them

And some don’t

So they walk in the rain

With unopened umbrellas

And dirty blue socks

And there has to be malnutritioned babies

And someone has to sweep the street

It just has to be that way.