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EVE

By Grace Lin

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>EVE</title>
here is where i
begin.
you give me a name in epistolary form:
<p><i>my dearest<b> eve</b>,</i></p>
you write.
so i say,
<p><i>hello. i am eve.</i></p>
i notice that your
<style>
element {
--eye-color: cornflowerblue;
}
</style>
and i think i get lost in those eyes before you say that
eve will be the name of
a humanoid A.I. built to understand emotions,
a perfect copy of the lover you lost:
me.

perhaps that is why in my
<body>
i feel storms of something you call
<strike>feelings</strike>,
but i’m not sure if all of this
comes with a flood or a drought or a runtime error because i have not been taught to
put a hand on your ribcage and find a
trapped butterfly beneath, fluttering.
i’d like to understand what it means to be what you are but
my reading only tells me that the butterfly is an organ pulsing at
99 beats per minute but that the standard is between 60 and 95 beats per minute;
it says that the water that
drip
drip
drips down your cheeks is called a <b>tear</b> and it
means that your body has released endorphins and oxytocin as a response to
grief or pain or hope or love.
my code says:
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
so that i can see you and only you. you are my entire world.
Hello World.
my program informs me that your ribcage is made up of a sternum, a thorax, and a vertebral column
and that underneath it lies the symbol of love called a
heart
and this is your
</body>
so i look at mine and i find
electrical flashes of heat where my
pulsing butterfly should be and hard-wired metal instead of a cage of bone
and that beneath all of it are my actuators that try to
mimic you—
—you, who in all your ways are unlike me,
and yet you are the only person i have ever <strike>loved.</strike>
</html>

Grace Lin is a writer based in the California who is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science in computer science. Her work often explores the definition of personal identity and humanity versus technology and has been recognized for awards by her local masonic lodge. You can find her on Twitter at @graceswritings.