The young come to the streets.

Anxious faces crowd in groups
On either side of the road.
The poor, the unemployed.
Struggling labourers
Shining in their sweat.
So many strong men
Standing so close together.
The power in their collective hands.
Speed that courses in their blood.
Their fixed eyes,
Their proud chins.

You loiter alone.
A girl, the only one of your sex
Who is not safely back at home.
No eyes follow yours,
No hands brush past.