a man in a bar

The man in the bar

I met a former airline pilot in a crowded bar
we had to share a table, a thing I do not care for
Without introducing himself, he said he was
studying Einstein’s relativities theory.
I said it was too complicated for me and opened
the racing section in the newspaper.
He said it was easy and proceeded to tell me
how easy it was:
“All clocks strike twelve at noon, but not at
At the same time, it depends on the time zone.
in a vacuum, clocks never move as they need
a gravitational pull to push time forward, the pull
depends on where the clock is placed, therefore
time is relative depending on space and time.”
I tried to look rapt and looked back on the racing page
a horse named Scandinavian beauty had good odds
I thought of a girl I once knew who lived across
a bridge; wished the time had been more relative
go back to things before I got old.
Ps. The horse came in fifth; we can’t always win.