By Joycee O J
If you ask me which is my favourite wear,
Without batting an eye, I’d say ‘lungi’!
So easily wearable!
So easily removable!
So easily reduce-able: ankle to knee!
So breathable!
So convenient a washroom wear!
So, what’s keeping me from coveting one?
I wrapped it around my waist
and liberated into the garden.
A loud incensing scream
missiled into my newfound freedom.
“What are you wearing? A lungi?
I can see your legs!”
“I can see yours too”.
“I am a man!”
“I have no gender markers on my legs!”
“Why don’t you wear an underskirt?”
“But you are not wearing one.”
“I am a man!”
“Get right in and wear an underskirt!”
“How will I fold it up then?
Don’t you, to ventilate your legs?”
“I am a man!”
I folded up my lungi in an attempt to rev(b)el
As the wind breezed my naked legs,
Voices barbed from East, West, North, South
“What happened??!!!”
“No, no, no, she was normal yesterday....”
“Then, what went wrong???!!!!”
“Aiyyyooo, Aiaiyyyooo!!!!????”
“What’s happening???”
I am back in my nightie now-
underskirt plus all other fittings, trappings and props!