Bob was born behind Blackpool Tower.
He quickly got used to sleeping
on wet concrete and chewing scraps
from bins with the crooked teeth
in his smiling overbite. His hair is
a grubby white, his eyes have seen
a few dark summers. “Half pug,
half shih tzu,” Bob’s owner says
encouraging his best friend to get
out of the spiky bush and enjoy the cricket
ground us humans are gossiping on.
“He loves it here,” Bob’s owner says,
looking down at the mud on his own jeans,
“…and it gets me out of the house,”
he continues, as the meaning of the words
‘rescue dog’ grows legs and runs.

Carl Burkitt 2024

I’ll see something funny in the street,
make it relatable with obvious descriptions
then make it surreal with a comparison
to something otherworldly or impossible
then bring it back to my ego and self esteem
before adding a line break
here then a poignant quote from a stranger
to make you think “wow, that was unexpected”.

Carl Burkitt 2024

“Good news,” the lady in the charity shop says,
“Someone your size has recently died.”
She holds up a pair of brown boots
ideal for my feet. They are well-worn,
the laces like calloused fingers.
The soles have a weekend of mud in them
remembering a man who didn’t stay at home
when the weather tried to convince him to.
I picture him – thighs as long as mine,
shoulders just as narrow but determined –
walking across the roof of this shop,
each click of his heel tapping out
an SOS message to keep moving forward.

Carl Burkitt 2024

Erling Haaland likes sitting in the corner of
his L-shape sofa with a baby-chick-yellow
cushion behind his Spider-Man PJ back
looking at the list of emojis on his mum’s phone.
His favourite is the poo one, obviously,
but he’s asking about the flags of the world.
He recognises some from the football on TV.
He smiles at the Turkey flag and asks when
he’ll get to have strawberry ice cream again
and the chance to jump into a warm pool.
He’s not bothered about the aubergine emoji,
he scrolls past it looking for a car or a red train.

Carl Burkitt 2024

Susan Shopmaker hired me for a major motion picture
so, of course, I was drowning in Oscar buzz.
Her casting record is second to none these days
so I didn’t think twice when she gave me the role
of an accountant for a family of mobsters.
Numbers are not my strong point,
neither is being strong, so I approached the part
with the mindset of just not standing out.
I played it low-key. I stood in the background.
I withheld opinions and never made eye contact
with any of my fellow actors. I never asked Susan
what she thought of my performance
because I didn’t want to let her down.
It’s true what they say
about film set catering, though, it was tasty.

Carl Burkitt 2024

Acrostic poems are a handy
Constraint to
Rely
On when creativity is too
Stubborn
To show itself.
I
Can’t think of a clever way to end this.

Carl Burkitt 2024

Erling Haaland is on the sofa thinking
about overhead kicks and penalty shoot outs
waiting for his fridge-stored Chocolate Buttons
to reach room temperature. His teeth
don’t like the cold and his feet are twitching.
Patience is a word he can’t spell
but his bones have learned
to be it. He sips his cup of milk and touches
a fingertip on the chocolate. Warm. Perfect.
Erling Haaland eats a Chocolate Button
and laughs at a defender falling over
on the television.

Carl Burkitt 2024

A silver giraffe is in the pub.
There’s a navy blue gift bag
on the table in front of him
with a bottle of something
poking out the top.
Presents two, three, and four are
the plumber, the marketeer, and the train driver
slowly sipping pints of ale on chairs
listening to him remembering their mum.

Carl Burkitt 2024

Write
on the good days, too,
they say.
So I will,
I think.

Carl Burkitt 2024

The lad from Coronation Street is
getting work done on his house
and talking to builders on his driveway.
Real life neighbours and poets and
children walking to school are
slowing down to get a peek into his world.
The sun is putting a shift in this morning.
Buttercups magicked their way out of nothing,
a sparrow has invented wings to travel,
the tree at the end of the road
is exploring the flexibility of the colour green.
A builder with a tattooed tells the lad
from Coronation Street to make him a tea
before tearing open a bag of cement.

Carl Burkitt 2024