Peter von Bagh via flickr
Using phase contrast microscopy, biologist Martín-Ledo has revealed a squirming water bear with a stomach full of glittering lights. He posted a short yet mesmerizing video of the scene on Twitter this week, with the caption: "Guess what I've got in my tummy?" Science Alert
So the tweet continues to tell me
the translucent eight-legged water bear’s
belly glows gold because it accidentally
consumed its aragonite mouth. Others float
that there might be cannibalism involved--
Further research needed. Experts just can’t put
their fingers on slow steppers. And I imagine
this little moss piggy finally reaching her
breaking point as someone notes how she
shimmers in her sequined tube top.
That even though she is capable of withstanding
the worst that anyone can throw:
boiling liquids/radiation/vacuum of space/
deepest ocean kind of pressure
without protection--capable of surviving long
after all men have kicked their buckets--
swallows tongue--
turns body into glass.
Victoria Nordlund is an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut. Her chapbook Binge Watching Winter on Mute will be published in Summer 2019 by Main Street Rag. She is a 2018 Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize Nominee, whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in PANK Magazine, Rust+Moth, Gone Lawn, Maudlin House, and other journals.