I walk into the pub and I am a sitcom character
waving at the bloke sipping white wine
like it’s summer, the woman with the dog
that smells of pig’s ears, the family
arguing over the spelling of ‘misspell’
in their game of Scrabble, the barman
with the awful taste in music. The chap
with the flat cap eating chilli peanuts
asks me how I am and I say something
to make the studio audience laugh.
And how they laugh. They laugh and laugh
and the other characters slowly stop waving
and the audience just laugh and laugh
and it’s unsettling when the air leaves room.

© Carl Burkitt 2023