This was inadvertent

I was just clicking away, in a daze

Going with the current

Blue circles, orange bells

Red banners

My eyes were overwhelmed

How long have I been here?

How many hours or days did I spend this year?

Somehow I stumbled upon you, an old friend

This is so inauspicious

But the sight is gossip and I must admit it’s delicious

How’d the internet know we used to hang out way back when?

I didn’t even realized I had logged in

It was, after all, my dog’s account

But your face was there

From age 16 to 36 in a flash – just by clicking on your page

A flood of pictures and color, how strange

It’s like I’m reading a novel – or better yet, watching a movie

I’m completely engrossed

Feel like I’m spying – what am I doing?

Your life is on my lap

You – in a bikini, something we would have never worn

Then with a million other supermodel-looking friends, holding martinis

Then you’re sitting on a rock somewhere exotic

Remember how we used to laugh?

Is this really you now? It seems a bit quixotic

Now you’re way too thin and mottled by the sun

I’m a ruthless judge

Rifling through the pages of your life one by one

Generating verdicts

What have I done?

We haven’t talked in a while but I sense a grudge

My dog walks into the room

He looks at the screen with a tennis ball in his mouth and asks what I’m doin’

The morning has passed

I come to in the aftermath

I’ve looked at all your pictures

I wonder how many elisions exist in the story of the past 20 years

The algorithm is more intoxicating than liquor

I can’t face my fears

My pup helps – I finally peel away

But not before his paw hits the keys – right where the screen reads: “Account Delete”

I walk away finally free

But changed by my friend’s uncovered mystery