December 28, 2018Gravitational Time Dilation
says a massive body, body of a large mass
will slow time, clocks here on heavy earth
ticking less often than clocks out in space,
clocks launched in rockets, racing far
from gravity’s pull. Here, the seconds spread
out, taking their time. Scientists say
the center of the earth is two and a half
years younger than its surface, and
when your body feels flung back
against the seat in a car’s acceleration,
it’s really the seat pushing you forward.
And you could never see someone fall
into a black hole, should you ever find
one while hiking or on a blind date,
because time stops at the edge
of the strongest mass contained
in a certain radius, at least in the minds
of those who understand such things,
which I do not. What I do understand
is that nothing is what it seems,
and what feels like pulling might instead
be pushing, and what feels like falling
is something rising beneath you.
Your slow drift from God is really
God running to meet you,
to throw a robe over your shoulders,
to kiss your face and ask
what took you so long to arrive?
from #61 - Fall 2018