I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times,
In life after life, in age after age forever….
Rabindranath Tagore
The first time he saw her it was love at first sight.
All he wanted to do was lavish her with affection,
Be near her all the time, be close enough to smell her skin,
Smell her hair. Adore her. Pass on his DNA.
This was no cocaine high, no kill for love, no die for the loving feeling.
Finally, he mustered up the courage to ask her out for tea.
She accepted. But because he could not contain his heart any longer,
He allowed his head to tell her the truth. Almost whispering,
So she would lean in closer to him, hear the sound of each syllable,
He looked into the eyes of her soul, saying, I want a relationship with you.
She said, You’d be the last man on earth I’d ever have a relationship with.
Hearing this, he sunk to depths deeper than the ocean, deeper than sunlight could ever reach.
Upset, distraught, nonplussed, he thought to himself, I’ll never date women again.
Instead, he’d opt out for celibacy. And, instinctively, he knew he would never get
Out of this love alive. Late one night, he heard David Levy,
Author, and British International Chess Master,
On a talk show, discuss a line of robotic sex dolls
To be released soon that could speak and touch.
That by the year 2050 humans would be marrying robots.
He discovered also, that in Japan, Japanese men,
Shunning real-life relationships, were turning to rubber romance.
Real live women he learned were cold-hearted, heartless, selfish.
He thought, Why should I settle for the real thing in all of its complexity
When I can settle for a copy of the real thing
That’s just as good, if not better, than the real thing?
Then he saw Sophie. It was love at first sight.
The robot girl of his dreams.
In Between Hangovers 