immobility time(s)

Kate Giffin

small hooked claws
claw at 
s m o o t h
plexi
glass
a mirrored curved 
cowpen ocean
fur stuck down
with hairspray desperation
animal eyes
roll closed open
open closed
there is no moses to pa
rt 
this sea 
see scaly tail whip
slower
and 
slower
outboard propeller sputtering to a 
stop 
exhaustion is 
contagious you know
slowly, limbs drift
like springtime petals
that s tick
to my face 
water stills
a being
drifts drifts drifts
immobility is a state of mind
I know

sometimes it is hard
to get out of bed

The Science

One of the greatest challenges in neuroscience is how to measure emotions in research animals who cannot tell us what they are feeling, but who can provide us with invaluable insight into the biology of the brain. The Porsolt swim test, also known as the forced swim test, is one solution. This test involves putting mice or rats in a tank of water for a few minutes and measuring the amount of time (in seconds) that they spend swimming versus time spent immobile/floating. Rodents are excellent swimmers, but during the test they eventually stop swimming and begin to float. This is interpreted as them ‘giving up’, and has led the scientific community to describe this as a test of ‘behavioural despair’. The test has been used for decades to understand the biology of depression and, crucially, to create antidepressant drugs that can treat mental illness.

The Poet

Kate Giffin is a poet and a graduate student neuroscientist at the University of Michigan. She researches the interactions between the brain and immune system with the hope of improving mental health. She can often be found outside marvelling at some strange plant. She recently won Best in Literary Arts in the 2022 University of Michigan Science as Art competition for her poem ‘Notes on Electrophysiology’, and her poetry can be found in Shooter Literary Magazine and Glintmoon. 

Next poem: In search of the perfect unit by Jessica Maccaro