Cringey Social Media 'Poem' Gets Roasted on Twitter

Ally Perry • Writer and Editor

Aug 13, 2023 1:00 PM EDT

The definition of art is something that's tricky to pinpoint. Personally, I'm inclined to take a more liberal approach — I don't think that any of those jerks who scoff that they could paint that minimalist painting are actually right.

However, sometimes even the most open minded of us get confronted with something that makes us think that they maybe have a point. Being terminally online is one of the worst things to happen to contemporary poetry, as one supremely cringey example of the form has recently proved.

A short, untitled verse about the need for a woman to spy on all her boyfriend's social media accounts went viral on Twitter for the terrible reasons that you might expect. The words alone make for a painful read, but the philosophy behind it is even worse. It's fair to say that readers were not impressed, and they had plenty to say about that. Rupi Kaur has a lot of explaining to do.