Being a writer, I’ve had the pleasure of working many jobs from paper delivery boy to bartender. I did have the pleasure of working in retail once upon a time. One particular year I found myself scheduled to work the Black Friday shift. If you’ve never done that before it basically means you cut your Thanksgiving short and head to work at a godforsaken hour so people can push and shove, scream and holler, snatch and grab whatever they can. If it isn’t nailed down it’s fair game and people are willing to try and take what’s nailed down too. Most customers have a look in their eye which I could only describe as demonic, I was no longer a retail assistant, I was no longer a dude selling clothes, shit, I was no longer a human, I was reduced to a mere obstacle. I don’t really like telling people what to do or not to do and I’m not trying to say you shouldn’t enjoy the cheap shit, I’m just saying if you do… don’t be a dick.

BLACK FRIDAY

It’s 12am

Night of Thanksgiving

There’s a line out of the door

Of the retail store

I wonder if they forgot

What to be grateful for

Wanting more than they got

I’m running late

Time to punch the clock

The doors aren’t open

I can see the rage

I’m just out here

Trying to make minimum wage

The doors fly open

With a bunch of people hoping

They can rip the clothes from the shelf

Like they were hung there

By some invisible elf

So I paused with zero regret

Figured I may as well

Finish my cigarette

Knowing my boss

Might shout and cuss

But I would hide my laugh

Knowing they couldn’t be short staffed

It was like a zoo

So I stood thinking

What it is I should do

I was only late by a minute or two

But I kept watching the vultures roll through

Make chaos out of what I organized for a day or two

They kept tearing clothes from the racks

Before I’d made a decision

I’d smoked my whole pack

I tried to find a way

To go into work that day

Knowing a bunch of dudes

Were buying clothes to sell on ebay

And anything we didn’t sell

Wouldn’t stay

Because no-one wanted that shit anyway

It was only the shit we saved for that particular Friday

I swear I tried

But I couldn’t help walking away

Of course the bus was late

And I had to wait

Like I did for the turkey

That I barely ate

Tired of being awake

I guess I’d had more than I could take

It was a needle in hay

It was the words I couldn’t say

It was the rest I couldn’t lay

Guess it was just another Black Friday