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Scientists Determine Time Perception Varies Between Animals

Start with a flashing light, electrodes—
and measure how quickly perception
shifts the light solid—
call it timescale: a finer mesh,
a higher thread count—a better lens—
incremental, yes, but also life
and death—a hawk has need
the whale does not.
That pest the housefly can see clearly—
like a movie man dodges
movie bullets—he escapes
swatter, newspaper, curses.
The swordfish boosts blood
to his brain before the hunt,
a calculation of body mass,
metabolism and need.
But my swift and needy heart
is with the tiger beetle
who runs so fast
she has to pause
for her eyes
to catch up.


Rebecca Brock is not a fan of bugs in general, but a chance encounter with a tiger beetle made quite an impression. Her work appears in The Threepenny ReviewCALYX, Whale Road Review and elsewhere. In 2022, she won the Kelsay Women’s Poetry Contest and The Comstock Review’s Muriel Craft Bailey Award. Her books include Each Bearing Out (Kelsay Books 2022) and The Way Land Breaks (Sheila-Na-Gig, forthcoming.)

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