A phone left hanging off the hook beep! beep!
An eerie hush settles in the offices... a tumbleweed rolls by
Children wait questioningly after-school
Mysterious disappearances... where was everyone?
Another epidemic flu?
UFO sightings?
A Simpson & Son Tonic?
No, there is only one thing on every French person's mind,
one single pre-occupation,
a game to Beat the System,
S-A-L-E!
Code word, like magic to the French ear
The single word that illicits
Massive swarms of bodies
Dancing the precise steps of a time worn dance
To the outsider, overwhelmed by the apparent Chaos
An impossible mess of individual paths
Colliding, twisting, gorging
a typical case of American consumerism
Yet a finely tuned pattern emerges
one learned only from years of practice
the same music, the same steps, the same dance
This grand performance arrives only twice a year
A single month, a single burst of excitement, enthusiasm
Six months of restrained passion, precise and select purchases
Finally permission, in a burst of Gluttony
The rhythm of state-controlled commerce
against the whining nips of democracy
Pull and push as the tide of change roars near