I watched a young woman
and in a shawl she
sat for two days
dusk until dawn
motionless and
teetering on the edge
of a busy Nairobi intersection,
I waited from the hotel window.
for two days
I was looking at strength:
sunrise
sunset
without eating,
drinking blinking
without turning a head.
Finally someone placed
a small fruit
in her hands
and there it sat
uneaten where a crowd had gathered,
where traffic slowed
it couldn't be understood
why? how
as she let the fruit
fall from her hands
to the ground
it rolled away, where
a child picked at it
and an older boy
struck him
and ate it.

on the third day
she was gone.

I think about those two days:
that woman was something
beautiful
something true -
I don't know.
and I understand,
she was onto something.