Gray scale

I am standing on a suburban train platform waiting for a train to take me to work. There are a few men here, and about a dozen women, most of them waiting for a train going in the direction opposite to mine, toward the great city. I notice that the women are all dressed in black. Head to toe. Black. Some are carrying backpacks or purses. Black. Sunglasses on, it is a bright morning. Black lenses, black frames. I glance at their shoes. Black. Oh, here is a young woman wearing running sneakers. They are gray and white. There is a letter 'W' sown onto the sides of her socks. It probably stands for 'Wilson', a manufacturer of sports equipment, and now apparently apparel as well. Is this 'W' blue? I strain my eyes to see. No, the 'W' is black.

No colors anymore
I want them to turn black

(The Rolling Stones)

Am I becoming colorblind, I think? Is this a black and white film? Am I watching this scene on an old RCA television set. Am I dreaming? I pinch myself. I must be in Sicily, surrounded by grieving widows.

I wanna see it painted, painted black
Black as night, black as coal
I wanna see the sun blotted out from the sky
I wanna see it painted, painted, painted, painted black
Yeah!

The women all wear trousers. Not one is wearing a skirt or dress. Trousers with zippers in front, like in men's pants. (A piece of trivia, in case you didn't know it: the purpose of zippers in the front of men's pants is so that the wearer can easily pull out his (?) member when standing at a modern urinal.)

I recall seeing photographs of the woman led from the raided Eldorado Texas Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints Church ranch last week, all wearing long dresses in pastel colors, and how someone told me he was shocked and disturbed to see them, that they looked like they had arrived from the early 2oth century.

Finally, lights of an incoming train become visible in the morning mist, an announcement on the loudspeaker, a tall, light skinned young black woman emerges from the up escalator. She is wearing a short dress. Her stockings and high heel shoes are black. The dress is bright pink.