Had Time Stood Still?

While on a bus so deep in thought,
I pushed this button I had bought.
A little gadget on a chain;
what happened then was very strange.

All people became petrified;
bizarre and freaky to my eye
of people frozen, seated staid
upon the Greyhound bus that day.

The situation sure was flawed;
this button went beyond the odd.
Had it stopped time throughout all space,
to freeze the living in their place?

And breath of life was put on pause
defying all of nature’s laws.
Plus all extant machinery—
the only thing that moved was me

in atmosphere transcending death,
imploring me to catch my breath.
As I gazed through the window glass
espying cars that could not pass.

I thought of gadget I had bought;
a Talisman someone forgot
that bore some long forgotten spell;
perhaps concocted deep in Hell

to shove reality aside,
then watch as life and death collide.
Confining me and me alone
to one tormenting Twilight Zone.

The cuteness of the button so
evaporated like the glow
of embers dying in the night.
In panic, I ran off in fright

not knowing where to go or run,
a mass of quiver seeking sun.
I thought of Sol and then I spun,
yet noticed it was also done.

With innocence, a button keep—
and this is now the curse I reap.
Welled up in scream, dread far and near
with no one in the world to hear.



40 Lines
Writer’s Cramp
5-26-20