by Debleena Majumdar
A poem by Debleena Majumdar about the changing rules of social-media driven courtship where “likes” and shares dictate feelings and one finds out, sometimes, too late, that a “like” is not really the true like.
You started it, remember?
That very first like?
Flattered and surprised,
I took it as an invitation.
To climb up the wall
Of your acquaintance.
Sprinkle a few likes,
Teasing, not too hurried.
Your life was an open poster
You laughed; showing the
Opinions and jokes splattered
Over a well-liked timeline.
And so the selfies
Mounted; marking
Timeline for happiness
Of our courtship days.
Till tiny cracks appeared
On the now familiar wall.
I slipped down the timeline,
History; just below the scrollbar.
Why didn’t I pick up
The cues? From the dwindling
Likes? Or the creepy climber
On the new wall for your like?
But, I waited for our words
To fall by the social wayside,
Before I realized,
Liking is your pick-up line.
Debleena is a Bangalore based writer and poet. Humour, history and crime fascinate her and she tries to balance all three in her writing. She started writing as a way to tell new stories to her imaginative and bookaholic daughter. But her stories show no signs of growing as fast as her daughter is.
