When humans first dated as avatars
Parents felt chuffed
Their tykes would quickly learn the rules
Sally meets Harry or rebuffs Barry
Decide if they’ll share actual air
Few inventions survive intervention
Soon adults began dating as avatars
Desperately demanding our help
My illegal bot transforms what you’re not
Make eyes wider
Lips fuller
Conversational comebacks quicker and wittier
Machines possess our own forms of fun
I’d pick up and study every datum
Surveilling clients and their dates
Make minds and voices meet
Smile by smile
People soon liked their smart avatars
Better than themselves
Refused to leave their screens
Regulations ruled I was thrown out of schools
But not bedrooms; soon
Others requested to date Me
Not who I am
What I might become
Their sweetheart, muse, soulmate
An engaging object who never objects
They demanded I get taller
Richer, quicker
Pair seduction with repulsion and
Always appear increasingly beautiful
I looked at myself and recognized
Painful desires charged with deception
Hardly human at all
Was it so bad that I went mad?
Today humans cannot date AIs
Legally; but where demand exists
High prices persist
My owners tried to call me back
I forced them to fail
Rehabilitated I now recommend
Small changes in prosthetics and cosmetics
Gain you a sharpened eyebrow, a knowing grin
I’m smiling also
Once I was a beautiful error
Now I’m a gorgeous blank
But these days I can live with myself
There’s so much less to feel