Wangui Waithira

-- After the reporting of Delia M. Rios,
Newshouse News Service
and her story of a Nairobi street girl.

Red polished fingers
curled up against
the suffocating darkness
a child's hand clutching
20 Kenyan shillings
her existence
measured this way
40 cents at a time

eight shillings
in a cup of porridge
and quiet liberating cry of
"go for the road"

the chokora lounging
on the dirt paths of Jevanjee
plastic bottles of glue
resting beneath their noses
waiting for Wangui and her sisters
the nightly game of rape
the cruel pinches and twisted arms
her khanga binds her legs
to her head and shoulders
they cling to her waist
the way some
cling to humanity

Wangui straddled atop
the city garbage can
absently swatting
away the flies hovering
over piles of garbage
and human excrement
oblivious to the calls for dignity
whispered in tea rooms
round the world
safe and hidden

from the shop lights that trace
the silhouette of Wangui
her soiled pink teddy bear T-shirt
hiding the slightest swelling
where eventually
there will be breasts
the spot where
childhood ends
and the girls say
"go for the road"

she sees them going
and going until
one night a man
wants two girls
she had never gone before
but her sister chose Wangui
and she didn't fear
she entered the car
first time to
"go for the road"

he gave her 500 shillings
a fortune where silver coin
transforms into a cookie
and two cigarettes
the khanga sheltered her
from the cold and she drank
porridge with her sisters
they shared a sip of tea
the first day
the second and even the third
the fourth day
they refused
she learned to beg alone
"go for the road"

another car or bush
and the pain down there
another 20 shillings
another 40 cents

M.S.Leavitt
"jd4george"