screen time for two

Dec 8, 2023 | 2024 Winter - Bi+ World Wide Web, Poetry

By Sarah Patterson

it all comes down to a comment
below, i’ll be lower still
who am i if not split in two?
subscription to someone else’s life
somehow both are me
somehow both are you

i am a follower, not an interaction
link to every want, a never need
jia tolentino where are you?
was presence made for multitudes
what gives, what takes my share
when the internet is so imbued

this ad says it was made for me
how does siri know I like girls
how does she know
they don’t follow me through
we’re all false lashes
on eyes of every man’s view

i’ll scroll to my demise
down in crowd commentary
two shreds of self, but who
is saying what’s true, not new
algorithms need to be fed
reflections of my hue

screens can’t protect me
from all this self-hell
signal me something true
mirror me this dysmorphia
save me from having to be
myself, my own, my you

Sarah Patterson is originally from New Mexico. She currently resides in California and studies foreign languages. She is the author ofWhat Color Am I?, a small collection of poems.

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