A headache occurs in the nerves,
muscles and blood vessels
surrounding the head.
It is not something happening to the brain.
The brain itself cannot feel pain.
I try to remember that
when I can’t get out of bed.
In those moments when open fields
feel like overcrowded workplace lifts
I tell myself My brain cannot feel pain.

© Carl Burkitt 2020

I have many feet for many different occasions.
My everyday Dunlop trainers are size 10.5.
My soon-to-retire football boots are 11.5.
The brown, pointy shoes with ready-for-this laces
I wore at my wedding are 11.
My 33rd birthday slippers are 12, like Dad’s.
I have many faces for many different occasions,
like Dad.

© Carl Burkitt 2020

There are three people sat on the train seats
opposite me. They’re all wearing hats.
One’s red, one’s orange, one’s green.
Their hats, I mean. I wish I could tell you
the colours matched the expression
their faces have. But they aren’t. The person
in the red hat looks incredibly open,
the person in the green hat looks
rather indifferent and the person in the
orange had looks closed off. When I’m smiling
through the room at a house party
discussing the weather and asking
how work is I’m often looking
for the nearest clock.

© Carl Burkitt 2020

My wallet has all sorts in it.
A receipt for a tube of Pringles,
a train ticket that died at Gatwick,
a business card from an escape room,
a Kolo Toure football sticker, 85p in silver,
a Post-It with ‘Charing Cross’ scribbled on it
and two first class stamps
I wish I could send to you.

© Carl Burkitt 2020