You don’t watch Eurovision?!
Ed says walking out of our London office
in the early 2010s. I shake my head
and bite into what I don’t know
is the last pork pie of my life.
Don’t you just like knowing you are a part
of something everyone in the country is doing?

I think about Ed as I watch the chefs
down tools in the London pub I’m drinking in
to look at the rare sky of 2026.
Neighbours to the left of the beer garden
welcome strangers with colanders
to stand on their brick front garden walls.

A family of three laugh with a bus driver
about how they thought their seive would work.
My son has a homemade eclipse viewing box
from my best friend against his face –
a face that knows the world to be
more fun as a shared experience.

Carl Burkitt 2026