Black Friday holds her sway over zombified shoppers,
arms outstretched, into the crowded jostle
that marks her prominent parade of people
heaped into American shopping malls
heaped into Walmarts and Targets and Macy’s, oh my!
Hip hip Hooray, and fill up with goods.
Christmas opens her doors early in America,
shining as a beacon far enough away
to light the piles beneath your decked out tree,
skimming the illusory surface of
nothing is ever enough.
Load up your carts good people:
evergreen candles to scent your home Christmas,
iPads, now minis, Mister Coffee’s like Keurigs,
all of these things that you don’t really need,
promoting your spending, feeding your greed.
In the end game,
all that matters,
is that he who dies with the most toys wins.
Wake up!
The mall falls silent
while shoppers consider
illogical trips through the aisles of the store
where there are still flecks left of deal great galore.
Black Friday insists that there is nothing more—
doling out her ever present persuasion,
safe in the knowledge
of human greed.
Last year’s numbers topple beneath best ever sales.
The system remains intact.
Black Friday curtsies her smile.
Brenda Warren 2012
Process Notes: I don’t shop Black Friday. Mostly though, I just don’t shop. Crowds do me in, Black Friday crowds would crush me. The system has control over our spending. We need to wake up, collectively.
Visit The Sunday Whirl.
undercaws 
I do understand Black Friday – I’d rather be home sleeping and miss the crowds!
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Of course that was supposed to be don’t understand Black Friday!
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Ahh…after the frenzy of Black Friday, come on over to “echoes from the silence” for a little rest… 🙂
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The Black Friday you describe is a bitch! (Hope you don’t mind my use of the pejorative!)
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True, too true … well penned Brenda – both poems … imaginative and to the point …
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I so agree – love the poem…
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ugh, cannot even imagine facing those crowds…I am sure jail time would be the result for me…
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Since I have a multi-cultural family I tend to enjoy the holidays as food fests. Since most of us can get what we need whenever we want I shop all year round for little fun trinkets and then just go to the Magic Closet when in need of ‘gifting’. I tend to stay away from The Mall from pretty much the middle of November until maybe mid January of the new year. And as for “Cyber Monday…” I’m not computer savvy enough to buy online. That may just be a good thing 🙂
I attempt the two things out with one new thing in rule. One year I tried to follow by example an article I read where the gal got rid of (trash, gifted, or gave away) 5 things for 365 days. I may have to do that again in 2013!
Glad you liked ‘Sister Dreams’ 🙂
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I totally agree with your insight. I hate Black Friday because I can’t even go to the grocery store. I braved it once and that was enough for me.
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sounds awful…glad I don’t take part in that nonsense, never have, never will! ‘stuff’ just doesn’t do it for me, and neither do rabid crowds of murderous consumers.
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Oh boy. Black Friday, there is an insanity to that. We have a similar version here, which is the weekend before the US “la gran venta”. I don’t like shopping and certainly not with millions of people. Excellent write on the event, Brenda.
Pamela
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I don’t shop either — and especially not on Black Friday. I dread the mall, and Target or WalMart — and store with crowds is living hell.
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Thanks for the insight into Black Friday, Brenda. What an indictment. Brave the crowds for good deals, no thank you. I like my shopping leisurely.
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I really liked your poem, with all it’s truths! 🙂
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We don’t have Thanksgiving as an organized holiday over here, and neither do we have Black Friday. But Christmas shopping still goes totally overboard in December. We’re at the age where we have all the material things we need, and don’t really wish for anything for Christmas, except to be with our loved ones 🙂
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An entertaining take on a habit that has grown out of control. (Actually I bought something on-line on Black Friday – it was on sale lol)
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We don’t have this sort of rush to consumerism in the UK (yet!), although we do have lights being strung up already in town. Our sales start after Christmas when the shops try to sell everything not sold to people hoping for a bargain. Not me, thank you very much.
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So true, Brenda….people load up with the things they don’t really need; but think they need because of the ‘good prices’ they can get them for. I stayed away from the stores. I have been out there other years and decided not venture out this year. Went to a movie instead. I chuckled at ‘he who dies with the most toys wins.’ I think this could apply to children as well as adults, and I see you do too. The commercialism of the season really gets to me sometime.
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Very good, should become a classic!
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You and I see eye to eye on this…Crowds do me in too. When I shop I get there as they open and leave as soon as possible. Shopping is not my favourite past time at all. I saw on our news that they said it was proven too than many goods people fight over on Black Friday were 5 0r 10% cheaper earlier in the year. And, crazy people still queue for them. Not for me at all. Glad I’m not alone. Chloe thinks I’m crazy not liking to shop, not crazy just don’t like greed and how crazy other people can get over ‘things’.
Great wordle Brenda 🙂
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Couldn’t agree with you more. I don’t do shopping unless I absolutely have to and then I must take a nap afterward. Black Friday shouts insanity to me. Thanks Brenda, at least there are two of us,
Elizabeth
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I don’t do black Friday either… but had to laugh still the same.
http://lkkolp.wordpress.com/2012/11/24/santa-has-tattoos-now/
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