Thursday, June 5, 2008

Comme des Garcons

That's French for "like boys." No! Read it again. It's "like boys" and not "I like boys." Although that is true as well, very much in fact.
Comme des Garcons by Junya Watanabe. That's what's written on the pair of shoes I recently bought. It's a pair of browns. Comme des Garcons is a famous brand in Japan with over 200 vendors around the world. It also has a store in Paris. I know, I can't afford these kinds of shoes. They are out of my league, so to speak. But I just bought a pair bitches! Be jealous, be very jealous!
On second thought, don't be. I bought them for only PhP120.00. It's that cheap. I got it from ukay ukay. That one near the United Pharmacy. Every night, that small alley there turns into an ukay ukay of shoes, shoes of every kind. Littered, quite disorderly, on the pavement are all kinds of shoes. Brand new class A pairs of all brands. But what I consider real finds are those pairs formerly owned by God knows who! If you just patiently look, more like hunt, you will find a pair that will suit you best. Like the Comme pair I found.

Seated like a five year old near a bush, she was wearing a hat. It was more like a rag wrapped around her head. I couldn't make the color of the cloth, it was past 8 pm. She was seated there on the side walk, near the bush. The bush was fenced by four lines of barb wire. Behind her was a brown box. It was empty. Tin cans of four different sizes were neatly arranged right in front of her. They were rusty. Two of the cans had water in them. One was almost empty, the other almost half empty. There was one big can with its lid cover folded away from it. It contained what seemed like leftover rice. There wasn't any mat nor rag nor even flat cartons that may have served as her floor. Between her and the soil is that rough, cold and heartless pavement. There were plastic bags around her. One bag was black. The rest were either white or red. Tucked in one of those plastic bags was a cat. Almost a foot long, curled in a spoon position. Unmindful of the people passing by the street. Another was asleep near it. Both were a collage of orange and brown feline hair. Carefully watching people pass by the street was a third cat. It was comfortably settled on its belly on the old lady's skirt. Together, the cats, the plastic bags, the tin cans and the old lady, they formed a circle. The brown box at the back of the old lady. It was a picture of how life must be lived. Simple, uncomplicated and full of care. The lady's eyes never wandered away from the cats. She must have provided for these cats for a long time now. They were a picture of a happy family. Like the first cat, the old lady was as well unmindful of the things that was happening around her. She did not even notice I was carefully studying them from about a meter away. Why should they bother us anyway? Why should she even mind about us? When they were perfect, just like that. It didn't even cross my mind if they had dinner already. I wanted to talk to her. I wanted to ask how she was and how long has she been taking care of the cats. I wanted to ask her if she had a home, if she had a family.
All she had to do to appease me was to be herself, to look after her cats under a dark, cloudy, starless sky.
I feel heavy, writing this one. I have to end this now. A tear just fell from my left eye. I can still see her face, full of love and full of passion. It's raining hard outside.