A Facebook Messenger Conversation between Two Philadelphia Eagles Fans During Super Bowl LII: A Found Poem

By Tara Laskowski and Brian Fitzpatrick

February 4, 2018, 6:15 p.m.

 Godspeed, my friend. Godspeed.

 Hope we make it thru this!!

 I still feel the pain from 13 years ago.

This one will hurt more I think
Unless we Win!!

 Yes. Yes it will.
Unless we win.
Could we possibly win???

 6:27 p.m., just before kickoff

 ......... yes? Yes!

We got this.
Unless I just jinxed it. Sorry.

 7:33 p.m., Eagles touchdown, miss 2-point conversion. Score Eagles 15, Patriots 3

Well some of it is going well

 Omg. What if they are just setting us up for heartbreak???

 Oh that’s a real possibility

I still say we just call it at the half.
If we win, I say we meet in person and buy each other beers or bourbon or coffee or whatever
your drink of choice.

 Def bourbon. I’m gonna need something to take the edge off for a long time

 Perfect. That’s my drink of choice.

 8:06 p.m., Eagles touchdown. Score Eagles 22, Patriots 12.

 Well Foles is a better receiver than brady

 I can’t believe there’s a whole other half. I’m so worn out.

Yeah pls j end it now. I think we can all agree on that right?

 Yep

 8:35 p.m., 2nd half begins

 10 more eagles touchdowns pls

 Uh.. 12 to be safe.
Silver Linings Playbook was such a depressing movie but it makes me happy to see Bradley
Cooper there

8:46 p.m., Patriots touchdown. Score: Eagles 22, Patriots 19

 Fuck

 : /

 9:02 p.m., Eagles touchdown. Play under review.

 They gonna overturn that crap?

 9:07 p.m., Eagles touchdown confirmed. Score: Eagles 29, Patriots 19.

 No!!!

 !!!!!!

 I would’ve torn all of my hair out

 I already lost some

Oh god

 I think my eyebrows are falling out

 9:10 p.m., Patriots touchdown. Score: Eagles 29, Patriots 26.

 Omg I hate the Patriots so much.
Also: shut up announcers about the goddamn td pass

They are the worst
Secondary looks terrible right now

Ughhhhhhhhhhh
Omg they could lose this. Oh god

 I hate this so much.
It’s torture

 It’s the worst Super Bowl I’ve ever watched

 9:25 p.m., Eagles field goal. Score: Eagles 32, Patriots 26.

I feel like every part of my body wants to throw up

 Yes. Wtf????
I feel like a truck ran me over
Six points is so flimsy.

 I have a bad feeling now. They can’t hold them on D. Need a turnover

 The beginning of the end. I’m trying to brace myself for it.

 Me too
Here it comes

 9:35 p.m., Patriots touchdown. Score: Eagles 32, Patriots 33

 [knife emoji]

 [skull emoji]

 If I had any sense I’d just go to sleep now
This is like the part of election night when they started calling states for Trump.

 Exactly

9:47 p.m.

 I can’t take this

 We will score a field goal and leave too much time on the clock.
I’m bleeding all over everything. This is the worst.

 I can see the ending already

Whatever happens, Foles has had a hell of a game.
Here we go. Fucking field goal. Fuck this

10:01 p.m., Eagles touchdown. Score: Eagles 38, Patriots 33.

 I’m gonna do
Die

 10:03 p.m., Patriots fumble the ball.

Omg
Omg
Omg
Omg

 Omg

 Fucking announcers

 I hate them and their faces

[lots of prayer emojis]
I am flying to Minnesota and strangling the announcers.

 10:12 p.m., Patriots ball. Score: Eagles 41, Patriots 33. 1:05 left in the game.

 I can’t take this!

 I’ve died
I’ll let you know what happens in the afterlife

 I’m dead!

 10:22 p.m., game ends. Score: Eagles 41, Patriots 33.

Omg. I’m sobbing
What kind of bourbon do you like???

 Me too

I feel like we won a goddamn war.

 LETS KILL A BOTTLE OF BLANTONS!

 Oh I’m ready. Let’s do it.

 I’m in!

Omg
This is beautiful

 I can’t believe it
I just can’t

 Still crying

 September 6, 8:59 p.m.

                        Here we go—5 more months of stress.

Not Your High School Girlfriend: Unbecoming Meghan Markle

DISPATCHES FROM THE CORNER OF HOLLYWOOD AND MOTHERHOOD

By Mia Sara

---

Unbecoming Meghan Markle

It’s nothing personal, we’ve never met,
but still, we go way back, Meg and me,
and every other pastiche Princess,
I willed myself to become, on or off the screen,
over The Pond, or under the Brooklyn Bridge.
Duchess, or not, I imagine she’d agree
It’s never about choosing the perfect hat,
or the appropriate shade of nylons,
swanning through one sun-filtered set-up
to the next, gliding on sharp stilettos
like they were sewn to your feet when
you were a just a little girl, dreaming
of the ball, the prince, the role of a lifetime.
I think we’ve seen it all, the original habit,
changing the subject, into an object, a worn
fetish against the fear of this everyday loss
between what we see, and what we be.

---

Mia Sara was born and raised in New York City. At the age of fifteen she began a career as an actress. Her acting credits include Legend, Ferris Beuhler’s Day Off, Time Cop, Queenie, A Stranger Among Us, Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story, and many others. After twenty-five years of night shoots, she remembered that she’d always wanted to be writer.  

Mia Sara’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Blue Stem, Mudlark, Chapparal, The Cossack Review, Edison Literary Review, Superstition Review, poemmemoirstory, The Southampton Review, The Write Room, Smartish Pace, PANK, Cultural Weekly, among others. The Dusie Press published her chapbook, “Still Life With Gorilla,” in 2014. Her column “Wrought and Found” ran for two years on the PANK blog, and is now a regular contributor at Barrelhouse Magazine with he column “Not Your High School Girlfriend” She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and children but misses New York every single day. Find her at http://miasara.nyc/ .

Let’s Eat (Together)

By Marilee Goad

for Anthony Bourdain

do we drink from the bottle

                                                or the glass?

you asked and she said i’m a lady, i should drink from

                                                the glass

and you didn’t say well, i’m a man, just said, good to

know,

and followed suit,

                                    your beer frothing over its lip

as you tasted food she called comfort

while she rattled off stories stewed in discomfort

you said nothing, just listened, asked

questions

she told you,

when you see your enemy as human, your whole world

changes

                                    nothing can be the same

                                    again

you nodded: do they cry?

            they break down, touch cheek to cheek

            remember the war

            but say

                        you are my brother now

and in the ellipsis you allowed a story to unfold

over meals known and unknown,

the beer cold

your ear warm

a whole world disinterred though the gaze of a man

who ate our food and said

                        you are my brother now

                        i see you

                        i hear you

clinked your beer glass against ours and said

                        let’s eat.

---

Marilee Goad attended the University of Chicago and has work published or forthcoming in Ghost City Review, OUT/CAST, and Georgetown University School of Medicine's Scope arts magazine.