You’re eating toast on a train.
Your suit trousers are resting
at your ankles above running shoes.
The toast is covered in honey.
Your phone is playing the Sopranos.
Your hair is in a bun.
The toast crumbs are in your beard.
You have a head torch on your head.
It is lunchtime.
I picture you cycling a Lime bike
when we arrive in London Euston
to a meeting where you’ll say things
like ‘let’s all practice radical candour’
and ‘sounds like beer o’clock to me’
and you remember everyone’s names
and can recommend good egg cafes
and you’ve got a jazz gig to go to tonight
and oh you’re getting off at Stoke.

Carl Burkitt 2025

Adronitis is a sense of frustration experienced when meeting a new and interesting person, but realising how long it is going to take to develop the relationship fully.