The woman on the bus encounters time dilation by Daniel R. Jones

The woman on the bus encounters time dilation
Daniel R. Jones

 Physics says time slacks
in the gravity-well
of a celestial body:

An atomic clock set at sea-level
will tick a tad slower than one
suspended in space.

Her car died but she
wasn’t afforded the luxury,
so she hobbles down East Washington

to a dead-end
job, cursing the cold,
constructing her own theory of timespace:

Time slows under the gravity of events.
A call from jail, a sudden death, a miscarriage
of justice.

When she lost custody of her
everything, time halted.
“Hell hath no fury like a woman” sans her son.
Taking the 17 to the 8, she
walks the rest-
She proves her love

she won’t count the blocks
or the hours of overtime
those, too, drag bad as a black hole
and she’s waiting
on time
to resume.