Journal of a Pokot Market Boy

(Prompt: Poets United Thursday Think Tank #60 Market Days

Lorwaa-dressed pretty Pokot girls

Men on shuka, cattle bells heard from afar

Mitumba sellers, Rock hotel abuzz

Blaring loudspeakers of crusading pastors

The concealed whistles of lomedos wooing their girls

Car horns, vegetable vendors, shop sellers

It is market day, Kacheliba

It is a one-day affair

On a Sunday.

A week long dazed small town

Comes to life

Once again

Cattle sold in the open

Hot tea served defiant of the midday sun

Feet oiled yet get dusty all the same

Loafers strolling aimlessly with prodding sticks

Clever goats partaking of maize vendors’ ‘wares’

Bicycle riders with missing bells

Careful buyers bargaining for hours

Patient vendors sweating in the sun

Sugarcane packed under ses tree

Thirsty bestraddlers of the market

Crouching on their knee-caps to drink from kisima

O, Kacheliba Market Sunday!

C) Lorot Salem 2011