First date with the algorithm

When the Algorithm leans across to read the the cocktail
menu and its arm brushes past my skin I feel a spike of
haptics, and when it orders us two old fashioneds I explain
I saw Mad Men one and a half times and only stopped
halfway through the second go-round because Joan Harris’
relationship breakdown was too closely mirroring my own
situation, and the Algorithm smiles patiently and asks if
this is a story I often tell on first dates, and I say yes
because it is relatable and opens up further meaningful
conversation, and I feel that the Algorithm gets it and I find
this refreshing, so I ask the Algorithm what it is like to be
burdened by prescience, and the Algorithm tells me it is
very good at catching lobsters but cannot break their shells
or eat them, and I look into the sands of its silicon eyes and
I see traffic and the weather and geopolitics, and I imagine
us together, our handsome yacht anchored to the swirling
outer rim of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, as we watch
the consumer-grade electricals float by.

'First date with the algorithm' was first published in The Rialto issue 100 (2023, ed. Ella Frears & Will Harris). A slightly longer version of this poem was subsequently published in Haptics (2023, Broken Sleep Books).