The time when every romantic encounter was an adventure into the unknown has long passed. In the technologically sophisticated society we live in today, you can practically know everything about a person by looking them up on social media: their food preferences, music taste, hobbies, likes, dislikes. Gone are the days when a date was filled with refreshing discovery of similar interests and playful banter over trivial differences. In the world of millennials, it's a dying art-form, and so are long, sappy love poems. So, I suppose it only makes sense to pair the two together.

A 21st Century Love Story

As soon as you introduced yourself to me,
I instantly knew everything about you.

I knew you were the type of girl
to have a sporadic interest in pottery.
If I close my eyes, I can feel
your soft, damp hands gliding
across the sticky, cold clay.
Your vase — which would be inspired
by your obvious interest in ancient Greek culture
(the loose Athenian braids gave it away)
would end up looking more like
a pregnant woman. However,
I knew you would still be proud enough
to display it on your farmhouse table.
No doubt it would be a great conversation starter
during dinner parties and girls' nights in.
Perhaps you would even consider permanently replacing
the plastic lilacs you were so fond of with this new centerpiece.

I knew you were the type of girl
to dabble in Italian cuisine
from time to time.
Oh how I would love to steal
a taste of your pasta carbonara,
mushroom risotto, and
eggplant parmigiana
right from your tinted lips —
nevermind the wooden spoon.

I knew you were bound to have
Beatles records somewhere in your home.
That wasn't hard to guess, though,
since everyone is a Beatles fan.
I can imagine you absent-mindedly over-twirling
al dente fettuccine in a long pot with silver tongs,
one hand on your aproned-hip
as you and John Lennon duet "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds"
in front of your kitchen window
that frames a starry night that is almost just as bright.

I knew you had a hunger
for adventure.
You were going to be the type of girl
to zip line beside the frosted chocolate mountains of Canada,
raft down the rough, white waves of the Colorado rapids, and
scuba dive in the rainbow waters of the Mexican coast.

I knew that you would be a girl
whose favorite books,
like her favorite movies,
were the ones with cliche endings.
You just seemed like
a Notting Hill, Love Actually,
Sleepless in Seattle kind of girl.
Maybe it's because I knew
you were the type of girl to have had
a When-Harry-Met-Sally relationship
of your own. Except in this version,
Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan spent New Years
alone and became estranged after that.
I made a mental note to tell you "sorry"
whenever I got the chance.
I wasn't really sorry, though.
After all,
it lead you to meeting me.

As soon as you introduced yourself to me,
I knew everything I needed to know about you.
I guess you could say we're soulmates.

That, or I quickly looked you up on Facebook
while you were in the bathroom.
But never mind that,
this was still romantic as hell.