You have somehow Frankensteined yourself.

ONLINE DATING BY AIMEE PARKISON 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 29

You erase

Photographs. Constantly

Deleting images standing before

Mirrors in harsh light with new cameras—

Flash or no flash, zoom, two-second delay, autofocus,

Facial enhancement, the time lapse, red-eye

Because you recently bought

A high-resolution digital camera and in certain photos

You look like a “diabolical meth-head”

As former friends

Say, it’s hard to find love—especially

Online—where photographs become people and

People become photographs. In cyberland,

New friends rarely—

If ever—decide to meet face-to-face. Fantasy betrays

Reality in photographs and carefully constructed

Profiles. Why? You ask, as the internet redefines

Conversation, friendships,

Because it’s easy to delete friends online,

Photographs that have served their purpose,

It’s also easy to start again, yet hard to convince

Anyone you are who you say you are in late-night chats,

Taking so many photographs,

You have somehow Frankensteined yourself in

Long-angled shot…