Not a single person in this pub has noticed
I am wearing a new coat.
Granted, none of them know who I am,
but surely they can sense the confidence of my shoulders,
the freedom of my hips walking with that warmth provides.
Surely they heard the comfort in my voice
when I ordered a hazy pale ale, safe
in the knowledge my underlayers wouldn’t get wet
in the event of a walking-to-the-table-spillage.
“Alright?” asks a T-Shirt stranger.
“More than you’ll ever know,” I don’t say.

Carl Burkitt 2024