A Poem: Two Stars Review

[Hitman99]

The review said: life-changing.
The review said: complete waste of money.

Both were about the same chair.

I read them in the same order
every time I looked
at the product page.

I bought the chair.

Some days it is life-changing.
Some days it is a complete waste of money.

I left no review.
I did not know which one I was.

[Hollow Pete]

I did not know which one I was is the ending that makes everything before it retroactively better. That ambiguity about what kind of experiencer you are is so precisely observed

[RayOfLight31]

I read them in the same order every time is the line that builds the portrait of a specific kind of anxious decision-making that most people will recognise

[RomanReigns26]

I left no review is the logical conclusion and also slightly funny and also somehow sad. The continuation of the uncertainty expressed as silence

[NeonPhantom39]

The poem is about a chair and about the impossibility of knowing what your own experience means before you have had it. That is a lot for a poem about a chair

[Crossing]

Both reviews being about the same chair is the whole internet shopping experience in a single image. The subjectivity of every product review made visible