Ode to Betty & Atem
Nothing quite says “It’s time to duel” like vigorously
licking leftover raw egg goop off of a silicone spoon,
sitting in a hunched-over lotus-position as
Atem drew the final card to turn the game
around against one of Marik’s evil henchmen.
The ding of the oven alerted me as I used
the commercial break to bring the bountiful baldies
filled with blueberries out, not bothering to await
their cooling as I rubbed them with butter, downed
them in milk and heard the return of the show’s
music. I ran back downstairs, my sister and I with
crumb-covered faces as we witnessed our favorite
pharoah fuse his monsters and bring the bad guy to their knees.
We owe our Saturday mornings to Atem and Betty Crocker.
A fictional card gaming-playing Ancient Egyptian royal leader
with tri-colored hair & a fictional 1920s brown-bobbed,
red-white polka-dotted dressed housewife
on the back of instant baking mix boxes
even eight-year-olds could use.
Morgan Boyer (she/her) is the author of The Serotonin Cradle (Finishing Line Press, 2018), and a graduate of Carlow University. Boyer has been published in Kallisto Gaia Press, Thirty West Publishing House, Pennsylvania English, and Oyez Review. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA with her family.
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