For Pauline

Some poems don’t need to be clever.
Sometimes they just need to be
about someone who likes to look at the sea.
Someone who doesn’t know why
she likes to look at the sea.
Someone who doesn’t know
what makes her just look at the sea.
Someone who gets lost in the repetition of
the waves as she looks at the sea.
Someone who knows she is tiny in this gigantic world
and is lucky to be alive at the same time as the sea,
the sea she likes to look at

Carl Burkitt 2025