Street Hawker Poem by Gert Strydom

I close the window
of my pickup angrily
as there the man with
spraying can comes
to stand at the front window
and today is the day
that I am not going to take any nonsense
if he lifts that can.

This time he holds himself in and says:
I am very hungry today
and nobody wants to buy anything
as if I am working at a university
and the briefcase next to me
must give him that impression.

It’s as if he’s looking really hungry
and there are two needy children
holding onto his trouser legs
with cell phone chargers, glue and such things
and it’s another thing
to stand day after day
in the sun
at a traffic light,

but he has got nothing that I want
and my heart burns in me
from sympathy
and when I give him
gee a fifty rand note
the light is already green
and a man hangs through the window of a pickup
and shouts something indecent to me
and I notice that I have got to drive.