If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love
Author: Rachel Swirsky
If you were a T-Rex, then I would become a zookeeper so that I could spend all my time with you. I’d bring you raw chickens and live goats. I’d watch the gore shining on your teeth. I’d make my bed on the floor of your cage, in the moist dirt, cushioned by leaves. When you couldn’t sleep, I’d sing you lullabies.
I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream
Author: Harlan Ellison
Limp, the body of Gorrister hung from the pink palette; unsupported hanging high above us in the computer chamber; and it did not shiver in the chill, oily breeze that blew eternally through the main cavern. The body hung head down, attached to the underside of the palette by the sole of its right foot. It had been drained of blood through a precise incision made from ear to ear under the lantern jaw. There was no blood on the reflective surface of the metal floor. When Gorrister joined our group and looked up at himself, it was already too late for us to realize that, once again, AM had duped us, had had its fun; it had been a diversion on the part of the machine.
A Starfish Story
Author: Mallory Ortberg
A starfish is a hand and a mouth. A starfish is two things: hunger, and feeding that hunger. A starfish always wraps its arms around its meals, only embraces the things it kills. There is no mind to say “yes” or “no” or “I.” A starfish is a walking eyeless stomach. A starfish is one appetite with a thousand mouths.