The Algorithm's Heart

They promised me a perfect match,

A soulmate found by code,

They said that love was just a catch

Upon this digital road.

The algorithm knew my type,

My preferences and dreams,

It filtered through the human hype

And found me, so it seems.

A ninety-seven percent match -

The numbers didn't lie.

We'd be the perfect pair to catch

Each other's passing sigh.

We liked the movies and the books,

The music and the food,

On paper, by the way it looks,

Our match had been well-hewed.

But when we met for coffee there,

Something felt quite wrong,

Though everything was beyond fair,

The feeling wasn't strong.

The conversation flowed so smooth,

No awkward pause or stumble,

But in this perfectly groomed groove,

I felt my spirit crumble.

For love's not found in data points,

In calculated pleasure,

It's born in all the awkward joints

That algorithms can't measure.

It's in the way they make you laugh

When you are feeling blue,

It's how they know your photograph

Without a perfect view.

It's in the flaws you learn to love,

The quirks that make them real,

The messy, imperfect glove

That makes your heart just feel.

I canceled my subscription then,

Deleted the app too,

And started living life again

Without that digital view.

I met someone the old-school way -

We bumped heads in a store,

And in that messy, human day,

I found so much more.

Our match rate would be sixty-five,

The algorithm's scorn,

But in this beautifully alive

Connection, love was born.

So let the machines calculate

Their perfect, sterile pairs

True love will never operate

On what the data shares.