By Anya Nehra
18 | Herndon, Virginia
Young adult contest finalist, Information and AI category
With lines from “Rape Survivors’ Lawsuit Against Dating App Giant Cites Pulitzer Center-Supported Investigation” by Emily Elena Dugdale, Natasha Uzcátegui-Liggett, and Hanisha Harjani, a Pulitzer Center-supported story
the other men held gutted bass fish in their grubby hands
their smiles shallower than the dates they rehearsed
post-gym resets, protein, rinsing their lives clean
enough to be dated, enough to be chosen
their profiles meticulously curated
proof that they could be taken seriously
taken to my house after dark
but he was a standout match
a doctor
his time divided into sections I could not enter
so I bent mine into dates that opened to him
I waited for the date
as if anticipation could mark it in advance
facetiming my friends, what to wear, what to say
who to be so I could be dated correctly
so I could be wanted correctly
when the day came, I ironed my jeans
and instead of breakfast and lunch, I ate a single date
sweet, fibrous, and grainy
sticking in my teeth longer than it should
enough to pretend I’m not hungry
but not enough sustenance to stop my stomach from twisting
I dressed modestly
because can’t fabric predict the outcome?
can’t covering up keep me safe?
is there not a correct way to arrive at the date
and leave unchanged?
but what of the date
that arrives already decided?
the date that cannot be undone
only postdated
when breath becomes instruction,
when his hands smother me
methodically
I cannot breathe
I cannot speak
I cannot call this anything
but happening
... and it is still entered as a date
how many dates are kept this way?
how many are recorded
misnamed
erased
matched
unmatched
ending as buried evidence
how many are understood only later?
to this date it remains
not an evening
not a meeting
not something that can be retold
but something that fixes itself in time
and stays silent
as more of us go on dates
and more of us leave our dates marked as defective
is to date to be chosen?
taken?
to be entered but never fully exited?
is my quest for connection consent?
Anya is an incoming freshman at New York University, where she will study psychology and creative writing. In her free time she loves to write (of course), read, and hike. When she read an article about how dating apps don’t take measures to prevent sexual assault, she realized how normalized violence is in our society, and how we need to do more to fight against it.
Read more winning entries from the 2026 Fighting Words Poetry Contest.