At your 10th birthday party
your dad stuck a noodle so far up his nose
it poked down into his mouth. He grabbed
the nostril end with one hand,
the tonsil end with the other and
“flossed his brain”. We laughed like we invented it.
For the seven lunchtimes in a row
after that day, you threw my pears
into the sand pit and stood on my yogurts.
When Facebook told me your heart stopped
suddenly in the night 20 years later,
I’m glad all I could think about was the noodle.

Carl Burkitt 2024

Written while listening to ‘Playground Love’ by Air.