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This writing was accepted for publication in the 84 page perfect-bound issue of cc&d (v238) (the November 2012 Issue) You can also order this 5.5" x 8.5" issue as an ISSN# paperback book:

Order this writing in the book Cheap Thrills cc&d 2012 collection book		get the 228 page Sept. - Dec. 2012 cc&d magazine issue collection 6" x 9" ISBN# paperback book:

enjoy this writing in the ISBN# spiral-bound datebook (released January 2013) the 2013 poetry date book			get this poem collection 6" x 9" ISBN# paperback book:

Order this writing in the book After the Apocalypse (poetry edition) (the 2012 poetry collection book)		get this poem collection 6" x 9" ISBN# paperback book:

Black Friday

Russell Rowland

As soon as our bowels have moved
Thanksgiving dinner into the septic system,
comes the thickest newspaper of the year,
good for housebreaking a dozen pups.

Nobody killed this year on Black Friday,
unlike other Vendredis noirs—though one
creative woman pepper-sprayed her way
through earlier arrivals at her Wal-Mart.

Store doors slid open at digital midnight.
Harassed and helpless, like sheep without
a shepherd, slipping in their own collective
Pavlovian saliva, people came in herds.

By sunrise, a post-shopping lassitude
like that which follows sex. Astrologers
three, of orient, approach the service desk,
ask refunds on gold, myrrh, frankincense;

ask pardon of the divinity still in diapers
for thinking treasure only what is snatched
from slow hands of competitors who look
like one’s own grimace in the shaving glass.

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