I could spend my life in the supermarket, going around the aisles
Walking among the plentiful and the abundant
Looking for things to help plug the holes inside,
Looking for something, hungry for something, I don't know what
But something that probably can't be found on shelves
Something that was maybe lost a long time ago.
I seen her first among the cauliflowers
I was looking at the lettuce, but only just
Secretly, like a crack detective, I was watching her
Beautiful blonde Venus, tall and willowy, all by herself,
I watched her buy some broccoli, then move over to where the
fruit was
There she picked some pears and some bananas -
"Mmmm", I thought to myself, " so you're into healthy eating,
you still strive to maintain your health
You must still believe in life and things like love and joy
and hope".
A little while later I seen her again, she was buying a Victoria
sponge cake
And looking rather wistfully I thought at the huge array of
chocolate bars and sweets
"A-ha!", I thought as if I'd caught her out, as if I'd found her
weakness, her vice,
" So you lack sweetness in your life and you try to compensate
with these"-
Well, not to worry, sure I often do the same thing myself
Temptation Alley I call this aisle - this place
You know, and here's a thought, I! Me! I could be your little
Sweetie and you my little Honey pie
You wouldn't need to seek this kind of comfort anymore
I could give you words, I could give you lines, O! the lines I
could give you
Thousands of words running in syrupy streams, sweeter than
the sweetest honey
That'd dress you up in fabulous gowns, make your eyes widen
in awe and wonder
Sparkle vivaciously like glittering sunshine on a sea in Summer,
I'd build you up, not knock you down, no! I wouldn't let you fall
The sun it'd always be shining in your heart ".
Next time I seen her, she was in among the wines
Looking a little bit lost like myself with all the different labels
" So!", I thought, "you like to kick loose sometimes, you like to try
and shake off the shackles that bind, the shackles of your mind
You yearn to be free and wild again, just like you were when you
were a little child,
To escape all those unpleasant restricting voices, old ghosts from
the past perhaps
Or maybe dark monsters this world planted inside, that won't go
away
You want to make them all seem so crazy and funny and mad
I know, I know, it can get too much sometimes, can be hard to
take
You know, Me! I'd do battle for you I would, I'd be your brave
and valiant knight
I'd face down those awful dragons, I'd lance them and trounce
them, I'd show you the truth
That they were always only mere shadows without any real
substance behind them,
O! I would".
It was funny but it seemed that wherever I went she was there
also
That wherever she went was some place I myself would go
It was like her shopping habits were a direct mirror image of
my own.
She came up real close to me in the pet food section to get her
cans of Whiskas
" So you own a cat too, I bet he sits on your lap and you stroke
him gently
And whisper silly funny little catty things in his ears..."
In the herbal bath and fragrances section, she was waiting for
me again
"So you like to soak in a hot tub, lie back and let the whole world
just float away,
I could light some scented candles, give you a nice soothing rub
Put on some nice soft calming music, together we'd make an
otherworldly place
For ourselves that no one else could find - it'd be our special
place".
I met her again, this time browsing through books in the Books
section, she was reading the blurbs on the back covers
I could see her thinking, trying to decide which one to choose,
" I hope you pick a good one, that'll make you happy, make you
laugh and smile
Not the kind that'd make you shiver, cast a shadow over your
world",
I watched her move over to the music CD's...sad songs and love
songs, still the romantic I see,
I could see her sitting at home with her cat, reading her book,
listening to her favorite songs
Dreaming of other lives she might have had and the heroes she
might have been,
"But we can be heroes still, you and I, heroes of our own lives
We could write our own books, sing our own songs
We wouldn't always have to be looking over at them and theirs,
We could build a world we'd love to look at and wake up to.
O! Yes...yes we could".
I grew curiouser and curiouser about her
Once she turned around and glanced at me briefly, but only for a
second
She had these wonderful big blue 'rescue me' eyes.
She reached the checkouts first
By the time I got there, there were other people in between us
I watched her, she smiled faintly at something the checkout girl
said,
She looked like someone who didn't smile an awful lot,
" What a pity, what a shame", I thought, "someone who looks like
you do".
I wanted...wanted to say something to her before she left the
store,
I watched her fill her bags, then head to the exit door
I could feel her slipping away from me
" C'mon, c'mon", I thought impatiently as the checkout girl,
she leisurely scanned my items,
Paying her quickly I bundled everything into my trolley and
took off in a hurry,
Inside me a voice was shouting "Don't go! Please don't go! throw
me a lifeline too, won't you!
Because sometimes I feel... sometimes I feel I myself I'm
drowning, that I need rescuing too".
I could see her car pulling out, it was a small car just like my
own, nothing fancy,
But wait! There was someone with her... a man!... another man
I was crushed/ torn inside," But I knew you, I understood
you...better than he ever could",
And then... and then she was gone,
I was just left there standing in the car park with my shopping
trolley.
Looking down at all the things I'd bought, all the things that me
and her liked
I thought for a moment that they might magically transform and
that she'd be standing there one more time, all vibrant & alive
But no! I guess that could never be.
So she went back to her world and I went back to mine,
I went back to my cat and she went back to hers and her man,
She had become just another thing now, just another thing I
couldn't find.
Going to the supermarket won't be the same again. Quite sad this, a career in Mills & Boon beckons.
