The ten categories of being believed by Aristotle
Ursula Whitcher
1. You are complimenting Aristotle’s brilliance.
2. You are Alexander, and you are complimenting Aristotle’s brilliance.
3. You are a carnelian and somebody has inscribed upon you the Greek
word for “carnelian”.
4. You are a dog. You are indicating, through a repetitive motion of
your hind legs, that you have fleas.
5. You are Plato. You are not talking about wine, or any scenario that
might genuinely or plausibly have involved wine.
6. You are a two-handled cup labeled “Drink me.”
7. You are falling from a cliff while screaming.
8. You are not saying anything.
9. You are not, or not any longer, a human woman.
10. You are the youngest of the Pleiades.
Ursula Whitcher is a mathematician and editor who reads Latin with some fluency and ancient Greek just well enough to get angry with Plato. Ursula’s poetry has appeared in, or is forthcoming from, sources including Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Rosalind’s Siblings, The Cascadia Subduction Zone, and Goblin Fruit, and is indexed (somewhat imperfectly) at yarntheory.net.