Girls who read by Mark Grist

Girls who read 

By  Mark Grist

“So, what do you go for in a girl?”
He crows, lifting the lager to his lips,
he gestures where his mate sits, then,
down his glass
“He prefers tits
I prefer ass.
What do you go for in a girl?”

Well, I feel quite uncomfortable
the air left the room a long time ago
All eyes are on me
um, if you must know

I’d like a girl who reads
Yeah. Reads.
I’m not trying to call you a chauvinist
because I know you’re not alone in this
but…

I’d like a girl who reads
who needs the written word
& who uses the added vocabulary
She gleans from novels and poetry
to hold lively conversation
in a range of social situations

I want a girl who reads
whose heart bleeds at the words of Graham Greene
or even Heat magazine
who ties back her hair while she’s reading Jane Eyre
and goes cover to cover with each Waterstones’ three for two offer
but I want a girl who doesn’t stop there

I want a girl who reads
a girl who feeds her addiction for fiction
With unusual poems and plays
That she hunts out in crooked bookshops for days and days and days
She’ll sit addicted at breakfast, soaking up the back of the cornflakes box
And the information she gets from what she reads makes her a total fox
Because she’s interesting & she’s unique
& her theories make me go weak at the knees

I want a girl who reads

A girl who’s eyes will analyse
The menu over dinner
Who’ll use what she learns to kick my ass in arguments
so she always ends the winner
But she’ll still be sweet and she’ll still be flirty
Cos she loves the classics and they’re pretty dirty
and that means late at night she’d always have me in a stupor
As we reenact the raunchier bits from the works of Jilly Cooper

See, some guys prefer asses
Some prefer tits
And I’m not saying that I don’t like those bits
But what’s more important
What supersedes
Is a girl with passion, wit and dreams
So I’d like a girl who reads.