What do you think is happening?

He’s leaning against the bollard
next to the burger bar, the place that takes
breakfast orders from 10am to 2pm but say
if you order after 2pm they’ll take your money
but you won’t get your burger.
He’s chatting to his phone
in a language we don’t understand.
We hear the word ‘banana’ and you smile
and he waves and he tells me
he gave you a banana last week.
He goes back to talking to his phone
and a lorry drives backwards and beeps
and your arms dance up and down
like the sun disappearing and appearing.

© Carl Burkitt 2022

Landing on a new planet

You walk into a room OH WOW
You see a sparrow out the window OH WOW
There’s a cornflake on the floor OH WOW
Is that a bus? OH WOW
I am wearing one sock OH WOW
It’s another day OH WOW
Clouds and pigs and raisins exist OH WOW
You fall into a wall OH WOW
Paolo Nutini is playing OH WOW
Without thinking you climb into the skin
of anyone around you OH WOW
There’s a bin lorry OH WOW

© Carl Burkitt 2022

Open can

Popeye
will slurp
spinach,
send emails,
put his slippers on,
change the lightbulb,
complete a jigsaw or two,
flick on the History channel,
eat some peanuts, drink tea,
go for a walk, look at leaves,
worry about the thoughts
in his head, talk about it,
potter in the garden,
feed the creatures,
sit down
have a
nap.

© Carl Burkitt 2022

Sticks

Bloody hell, just collect sticks mate.
Save them from the mud. Drag them
through coffee shops and supermarkets.
Pile them high in your porch; make it
difficult for anyone to find their shoes.
Give it some welly. Make your walks longer.
Don’t apologise. Get more sticks.
Make them dragons. Hug the dragons. Make them swords. Kill the dragons.
Throw them through the sun and yell
I AM STEVE BACKLEY.
Talk to your sticks, mate. Give them names.
Ask them what they’re working on. Ask them
how they’re doing, even when they look sad.

© Carl Burkitt 2022

Another one

He is beard and legs.
He is slow strides,
cracked neck, sore feet.
Fingers wrapped around handles
carrying ancient treasure.
We nod loudly
like the horns of Mini Coopers
beeping as they pass one another
wondering how they were built.

© Carl Burkitt 2022

I see regulars, walking around like regular people

I know what he wears on a Friday,
that bloke with a ladder on his shoulder,
buckets for hands, Brillo pad smile.
I know what he drinks on a Friday,
that man with a scarf around his neck,
a swinging briefcase, a polar bear on his head.
I know when she lets loose,
that woman with juggling ball children,
running shoe feet, A to B eyes.
I know where he sits alone,
that guy surrounded by hyenas,
inventing a life, tap dancing forever.

© Carl Burkitt 2022

Nickname

The random sentence generator website offered:
I was very proud of my nickname
throughout high school, but today I couldn’t
be any different to what my nickname was
.
The small print at the bottom of the site said:
If you’re visiting this page, you’re likely here
because you’re searching for a random sentence
.
Which was true, because I am nothing
like Baby Bucket or Burger or Birdshit,
I am an empty mind at the end of time.

© Carl Burkitt 2022

Rumble

They will throw each other over
the top rope, these men in pants and tights,
each muscle bigger than my head,
personalities more colourful than the veins
creeping their way to my heart.
They will kick and punch each other,
these men desperate to make you
forget you are being kicked and punched.
They will say anything to you,
these men with microphones in hand
talking from a script written by a man
who wants you to kick and punch,
be kicked and punched.

© Carl Burkitt 2022

It’s hard not to think

Jennifer Lawrence is spreading jam
across the middle of her toast
and it’s hard not to think about how
that’s how Jennifer Lawrence
spreads jam across her toast.
But that’s not how Jennifer Lawrence
spreads jam across her toast,
it’s how Jennifer Lawrence thinks
Kate Dibiasky spreads jam
across her toast if Kate Dibiasky existed.
I can’t remember the last time
I spread jam across some toast.
I walked to the shops this afternoon
and I don’t know how I got there.
Leonardo DiCaprio is writing on a whiteboard
in handwriting he’s not sure if it’s his.

© Carl Burkitt 2022