You can start from a template:
fishing buddy
gal pal
backstabber
dumping ground
There are others, too,
or you can start from scratch,
customize everything—but
that costs extra and you lose
something in verisimilitude:
Can you custom-build your
actual flesh-and-blood friends?
Hardly. Templates might seem
artificial, but most real people
are pre-formed by the time
you meet them, anyway.
Consider this: When you get
a new green dinosaur from
a Mold-A-Rama in some cool
corner of a museum, you are
every bit as pleased with it
as if you designed it yourself.
Your new 3D friend will be
similar: all one color,
with that new toy smell.
Warm and pliable, at first.
Marilyn Rauch Cavicchia 
Wow. WOW! This is ingenious. I love this poem’s not-so-sci-fi inventiveness, as well as its dystopian tone. What *is* a friend if we create it ourselves?
Thanks, Jennifer! My mind went in kind of a strange direction today …
LOL…Brilliant..Thank you for making my day!
Thank you, Rallentanda!
Nice sideways look at friendship.. enjoyed this. The analogy works so well 🙂
Thanks so much, Becky!
“you lose/something in verisimilitude” -Good one! And, you may not be able to custom-build your flesh-and-blood friends, but it doesn’t stop some from trying. The results, sadly, are always the same: they get broken or tossed in the trash.
Thanks, Mark! Yes, the custom building attempts often cause terrible damage. Broken, tossed, or forgotten when the next new toy comes along.
There’s a lot to think of in here about friends…how picky do we get in looking for the perfect friend…I like this and the thought it stimulates.
Thanks, eusebeiaphilos! I was kind of reasoning things out as I wrote it.
I agree–this is a wow! Loved this on all kinds of levels!
Thanks, Audrey! The title phrase came to me as I was walking to work, and then I had to figure out what I meant. 🙂