Meg Eden

Spectator Sport

my cousin plays super mario world on his NES & i watch he won’t let me play because
he says i’m a girl & i wouldn’t understand 
 
he keeps running into the caterpillars & falling off the edge i want to fix it for him but
instead i watch
 
i’ve gotten used to watching now—even enjoying it—when i go over to boys’ houses &
they start playing smash bros
 
& there aren’t enough controllers for me to play & no one offers to switch out because
i’m a girl and no one assumes i’d want to play
 
i imagine what moves i’d make if i could be any character i’d be kirby small & able to fly
 
& no one takes kirby seriously so when i do get to play i drop on their heads like an anvil
 
& if not i am still the anvil inside me dropping on them heavy & loud

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Meg Eden's work has been published in various magazines, including Rattle, Drunken Boat, Poet Lore, and Gargoyle. She teaches at the University of Maryland. She has four poetry chapbooks, and her novel "Post-High School Reality Quest" is forthcoming from California Coldblood, an imprint of Rare Bird Lit. Check out her work at: www.megedenbooks.com