A sunny January day at the big mall in Costa Mesa
Jenny is looking for a new pair of black pumps
Trying on spangly dangling earrings and Ray-Bans
Seeing who there is to see on the stroll.
Mackenzie is at the same mall, checking out the
Talent on display–this is a place you go
Because you know you the goods for the show
Because you want people to see your strut.
Very few people notice Mackenzie at the mall today,
Noticed him yesterday or last month or last year
You might think he’s accustomed to social invisibility
But down inside he wants to be seen as much as Jenny.
He sees Jenny, in fact he likes the way she struts
Trying on those black pumps and would gladly
Buy them for her, or the jewelry or sunglasses
If Jenny would only look on him kindly.
Mac–he like to call himself Mac, nobody else
Thinks of him as a Mac kind of guy, not too many
People think of him too often as any kind of guy
People hardly look at him unless he spills coffee on them.
Mac thinks his hobby makes up for the dateless
Saturday nights, painful family holiday dinners where
He has no answer for his mother’s withering looks
At the empty chair where his wife would sit.
Mom and Dad try to hide their sadness and
Growing disdain at Mac’s continuing failure, his
Once promising but now dimming prospects,
See their bright and happy boy turn hollow and grey.
Jenny is still full of promise, just out of college,
Working for smart people at an exciting startup
More beautiful than as a high school cheerleader
Looking at her future reaching out to hold her.
Ten years from now people will start to call her
Jennifer but now, sweet, friendly, open
That’s too formal to occur to the people she knows
She looks like Jenny to everyone.
Mac knows Jenny, he sees her at the mall on weekends
Grabbing coffee at lunch with girlfriends
Working out at the gym. The gym Mac joined to
See more of Jenny, and be seen by her.
Today is the day, Mac says. To himself, he has
No buddies to brag to or work up lines with
He’s going to have a conversation with Jenny
See if she will spark to his flame.
Just in case she doesn’t, Mac has a plan B.
Smart guys work up their options, he knows.
Mac’s plan B is unconventional, 9mm’s of hard steel,
Surely he won’t need it, Jenny will see his love.
BillSaysThis 