Dear Magic 8 Ball by Megan Woods

Dear Magic 8 Ball

Megan Woods

Dear Magic 8 Ball,

I wish you could answer more than just yes-or-no questions.

I’d ask you to solve my math equations when I’m up late, finishing my homework. I meant to get them done earlier, but then Heidi asked me to paint the windows at Franco’s for Halloween, and it sounded like more fun. I should’ve asked if going off with Heidi was a good idea in the first place.

I’d ask you what piece to audition with for an acapella group. I ran my voice raw preparing for that audition, going through every song I had ever performed before, only to decide on the first piece I had chosen anyway. Still, it was kind of nice sifting through old music I haven’t performed in a while.

I’d ask you what to say to people that might make them want to be friends. Irving says he thought it was funny when he first met me— how I’d jump from subject to subject just to keep talking, but I wasn’t trying to be funny. Maybe it would just be better if I had a Magic 8 Ball to choose my words for me.

I think most of all, I’d want to know how to get out of this slump. I don’t love the things I used to, I don’t write what I want to say anymore.

Magic 8 Ball, I wish you could ease my mind by answering the harder questions for me.

I know you don’t even really know the answer to those yes-or-no questions, and you’re not really magic at all, but in those couple of seconds I shake you up,

I always magically know what I want your answer to be.