Description: The following is a poem inspired by the dating service Tinder. Each line of an unitalicized stanza was ripped from a random Poughkeepsie user’s bio. Stanzas are organized by theme. The piece explores how technology changes the way we relate to our peers.
Tinder: A swipe can change your life
I swiped left on you, or in the affirmative.
Bored and wasted, I swiped left on about twenty other men too.
You weren’t that special,
God dammit.
———————————————————————————-
I love adventures
Love the outdoors
Anything outdoors
Neither of us is athletic.
You were, once. I saved that old picture of you
Dressed for soccer, fat and grinning.
You could never picture me playing Varsity tennis.
I could never confess I was an alternate.
Let’s have some fun
Let’s get drunk
Always down for a wild night
Gotta party every weekend or it’s not a weekend
I grabbed your shoulder. My last words before fainting were,
“I’m really drunk.”
Later, you told me it was alright:
You could hear the music better from the medical tent.
Huge music fanatic
Metal, jazz, and classical
I’ll listen to pretty much anything once
You wrote a song for me in November.
Ok, maybe not for me, but about me.
It’s March and
According to iTunes, I’ve played it 86 times.
I would chug spoiled milk before telling you so.
Trying to save money to complete school
PhD student
University of Dalton Flyer
Dominican College Men’s Lacrosse
Would I be happy if I had gone to a different college?
I always liked the idea of Oberlin.
Those kinds of thoughts are pointless, you said,
Embarrassed of me.
I’m looking for friends
Not anything close to serious
Just want to have some fun
(Just fun)
In bed, you spat at me,
“I’m done with you.”
I stared at the grotesque pattern on your comforter,
BLACK-TAN-BLACK-TAN,
And felt myself melting into it.
I decided to sleep on the futon that night.
———————————————————————————
Ready to turn up
So hit me up
[If you think our looks are comparable]
Hit me up!
Hmu!!!
I’m going to set my preference on Tinder to “Women Only.”
Girls have softer hands, at least.
Send me nudes or this is pointless.
