Marietta McGregor

Fast Fashion

Men with blank eyes wearing rasta beanies lounge on the pavement outside a gambling house, smoking, chewing, spitting blood-red betel nut juice into dirty rain puddles. In dingy shops flanking the narrow potholed footpath, owners sit on elevated stools, a theft deterrent. Faded enamel signs advertise canned corned beef, navy biscuits and tea. One concrete-floored room is filled with waist-high metal mesh bins. The humid air is foetid. Sweaty tangles of clothing spill out, cast-offs from rich countries. Women rummage for dresses that are not too threadbare or stained at the armpits. Soon they must leave to tend gardens and cook food, or their men will come home and be angry.

fingering a blouse
she puts her baby
to the other breast

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About the Author

Marietta McGregor is a former science writer from Canberra, Australia. Her haiku, haibun and haiga appear in international journals and anthologies and on Japanese television.