Borders Bookstore

Borders Bookstore by Neil McCall

I was prowling in the Borders Bookstore
As I do in these wilderness days;
Scanning the shelves of the self-help section
Waiting for a woman to graze.

She was thirty going on forty;
She was pretty turning plain.
Well-dressed, well-heeled and well perplexed;
Her loss could be my gain.

She orbited "Mars And Venus",
Perused "Why Men Won't Commit".
I sharpened my claws and straightened my tie
And strolled right in for the hit.

"I'd love to learn to love," I said
As befits a man who cares.
"There's a second-floor cafeteria;
Can I please take you upstairs?"

Latte and lamentations
Cappuccino and a currant bun
She poured out her heart like sugar
And my strategies came undone:

"You're in your cave and I'm down my well -
It's that time of the month, you see.
So please don't offer me solutions to my issues
Just coffee and sympathy!"

Well, she couldn't read love's roadmap
And I can't spot emotional signs
But put us two blind pilots together
And we can land between the lines!

Now she knows why I stare at the fire;
I know why she flicks her hair.
We've both discovered too much about the other
So we've formed a predatory pair.

And we're prowling in the Internet Cafes
Where the swingers and the switchers thrive;
Come along and join our little party
Come along and be eaten alive.