Bargain
by Andrea Cohen

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We paid him next
to nothing—less than the little
he’d asked for—to lead us

at dusk from the pyramids
on camels into the desert.
Such slim wages

to take us, without
complaint, all that way—
so far, without a star.

We were in the middle
of nowhere, or at its edge.
Friends, he asked, from

inside that blackness,
what will you pay me
to take you back?

"Bargain" by Andrea Cohen from FURS NOT MINE, copyright © 2015 Four Way Books. Used by permission of Four Way Books.