The ants appeared unusually frantic,
Wrinkling time around their entrance
In the gravelly grass above the stony beach.
A motorboat cut a bit too close to shore,
But otherwise, the slightly wrinkled lake
Was quiet. The only reason you think an odd,
Intense, or frightening event took longer,
Slowing down time is because you were
More attentive, more neuronally engaged,
Not because you could slow down events
Or react any faster. Your brain estimates
Duration based on how much attention
You paid. The swimmer tried to pay more
Attention to these last, high summer days
At the lake, but the ants were no less frantic
And the crows refused to slow their cawing.
So long memory wove its own wrinkles,
More comfortingly. The similarities of this
Day to hundreds of previous visits to swim
In the sun, snugged tightly together
In bunches, bundling the fabric of change
So that it all seemed almost one, and that
One almost unchanging. The swimmer stood
Up and wandered back into the waves.
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