Using SQS with CoffeeScript in Express. Ugly, but works.

sqs_message_receiver.coffee

# Note on globals: _, app, logger, and Data are global. Everything else is standard node.
# npm libs: aws-sdk, mongoose, express, coffeescript, lo-dash... At least, where this came frome.
# Lo-dash could easily be replaced with a for-each, but I use it all over the place in my apps.

aws        = require 'aws-sdk'
aws.config.update accessKeyId: app.get('s3_access_key'), secretAccessKey: app.get('s3_secret_key')

sqs        = new aws.SQS(region: app.get('aws_region')) # aka 'us-east-1'

queue_url  = "http://sqs.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/#{app.get('aws_user_id')}/#{app.get('s3_bucket')}"
poll_every = 1000*5  # 5 seconds, express in ms.
long_poll  = 20      # 20 seconds, expressed in seconds.

recvMessage = ->
  sqs.receiveMessage {QueueUrl: queue_url, WaitTimeSeconds: long_poll}, (err, data) ->
    if data and data.Messages
      _.each data.Messages, (message) ->
        details = JSON.parse(message.Body)
        return sqs.deleteMessage({ QueueUrl: queue_url, ReceiptHandle: message.ReceiptHandle }, logger.logErr) if details.Event is "s3:TestEvent"
        if details.Records
          data_id = details.Records[0].s3.object.key.split('/')[2]
          Data.verify_location data_id, (err) ->
            sqs.deleteMessage({ QueueUrl: queue_url, ReceiptHandle: message.ReceiptHandle }, logger.logErr)

    setTimeout recvMessage, poll_every

# Start receiving messages.
recvMessage()

This was specifically built only to receive messages. I used it for the events that S3 pushes to SQS when a file finishes uploading. It works like a charm.