Dating apps | Megan Elliott

I know how this goes

a split second to decide

if you like the narrative conjured

up in your mind

from the images they chose to provide

superficial snippets of complicated lives

the stillness of it makes me queasy

we do not fall in love with static images

images are easily

cropped copied changed

people are not

images are ghosts

they are abstract ideas

that mutate with each passing voyeur

thrust into the digital uncertainty of

dating apps

images are imbued with

a false power

one that makes you believe

that you can feel the richness

of human connection

behind a screen

in truth

images are illusions

onto which we project our desires

and if we can shake off

the potent expectation

of the image

we will free up space

for the unpredictable

inexplicable randomness

that is falling in love

---

Megan Preston Elliott

She/Her

Instagram: @wordsbymeganpreston

“I am a poet, sculptor, writer and founder of Assemblage Magazine, an art magazine run by artists for artists. I have published online and in print in several magazines including Brenda Magazine and F*EMS Zine. My poem ‘New Skin’ was selected for inclusion in New River Press’ anthology ‘SMEAR: Expanded Reissue’. I have a degree in Fine Art from City & Guilds of London Art School, where I was awarded a prize for my writing by Art Monthly magazine. I am a queer, femme, cis-woman who also loves yoga, dogs, podcasts, gigs & going to therapy.”