Modern Love at 50
Michele Mekel
I swipe—
left, left, left, left, right
—until the faces look the same,
contemplating for whom
these algorithms were designed.
At the piano bar,
Friday night fades, with me
in uncomfortable shoes, a vacant smile,
composing the grocery list in my head.
All this to find
Schrödinger’s elusive cat
in the desired state,
warding against that constant specter:
ambiguous loss.
Living in Happy Valley, Michele Mekel wears many hats: writer, editor, educator, bioethicist, poetess, cat herder, witch, and woman. With more than 150 published poems, her work has appeared in various academic and creative publications, including being featured on Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac and nominated for Best of the Net. Her poetry has also been translated into Cherokee. She served as co-principal investigator for the Viral Imaginations:
COVID-19 project (viralimaginations.psu.edu).