I was watching a man
standing on the pavement
who didn’t know I was watching.
He was wearing a long,
autumn leaf brown coat
and holding a clipboard
in his black leather gloved hands.
He was doing that thing
when you open your mouth
and slowly flick your tongue
against the inside of your top front teeth.
An ambulance drove past slowly
and did that thing
when they fire their alarm for just one second
and the man jumped like he was falling
and caught my eyes looking at him
from my top floor flat.
He waved at me with a force
you’d wave at a dead loved one in a dream.

© Carl Burkitt 2021