#pulee

 
The man who sells fruits and vegetables outside the supermarket where I do my weekly shopping wears striped underpants. I can tell they have stripes because the material of the trousers is worn thin from over-use and can be seen through. And then there are times when he bends over to pick something from the basket under the stall and because his shirt is not tucked in, the striped underwear is visible.

Who ever talks about men’s underwear? Or what sorts of things they wear underneath their trousers? Or maybe not? Who ever admonishes men when they balance their jeans and their dirty boxer shorts are on full display, and you wonder whether they have a bum or not because the trousers are so low? Or when their builder’s crack aka bum ‘cleavage’ is out for all to see?

Briefs, boxers, jockstraps, trunks. I don't know much about what men wear, but I know that they know a huge lot about women’s stuff because its all over their mouths, their phones, their messages, the papers, the mags, the posters, the clubs, the billboards. Name it.

Some years ago when I was a secretary at a manufacturing office, one of my workmates was a small thin man who wore trousers that were too big for him. They were so huge that he was forced to use some reinforcement. The reinforcement came in the form of a thick pair of jean shorts. Cutoffs most probably. I wondered when he used to wash them because he wore them all the time. (I espied them a number of times, when he pulled them higher than the trousers.) Maybe he had a number of shorts, I don't know, but I don't think so. I wondered what happened under the two pairs of pants when it was hot? Did he also wear underpants under the two pairs of pants?

The fishermen who plied their trade at the shores of the lake where we went to secondary school wore this kind of thin underwear called Play, pronounced “Pulee”. The polyester pants were tight, and looked like minuscule sports shorts, but in the weirdest of colors- lime green, scarlet red, cobalt blue- with white lines running down them.

In Kikuubo downtown, vendors sell briefs in all sorts of colors and synthetic fibers. Nylon, rayon, spandex, cotton briefs. I wonder if they give a damn about fabrics that are “hygienic” and “breathable” like women do.

These days many men wear boxer shorts- cotton boxers. For those who wear tight trousers, you can see the lining of the bottom through their pants. I hear boxer shorts are comfortable. The checked ones look good, plain (as long as they’re not red) is also okay. No flowers, no teddy bears, no fruits etc.

Then there are those who we all suspect, do not change their underwear. There is this weird smell that hangs about them when they sit, when they stand up, when they manspread.