The poet wakes, rubs snot
from his nose with a stuffed Rudolph,
looks out of the blackened window
and says something
larger than his three years.

Carl Burkitt 2023

The sprouts will do their best
not to listen to opinions.
They will walk into the dining room
with the intention of being proud
of being green. They will
hope to sit comfortably in their scent
and not offer excuses or hit themselves
with insults to make the room easier.
They will not wonder
why they are not being asked
second questions after ‘How’s work?’
and focus on the few tongues
that recognise the joy of difference.

Carl Burkitt 2023

The lads are getting their Christmas haircuts.
Curly pine needles are dropping to the floor,
one geezer gets a tinsel fringe,
and two bauble are waiting on a sofa to be polished.
They’re arguing about the taste of sprouts
and whether you should open presents
before or after your Christmas dinner
and if they’re excited for the King’s Speech.
I nod and tut and laugh when appropriate
but mainly wonder why I only call
my sideburns ‘sideys’ to the barber.

Carl Burkitt 2023

Russell Crowe is at Euston station
struggling to hear the Tannoy announcement
that all the trains between Watford
and Milton Keynes have been cancelled
for the next three hours. He’s fuming
at Upper Crust and Burger King and his watch
and can just about smell the pizza
he was planning to have with his family
when he got home.

Carl Burkitt 2023

She’s writing her Christmas cards
on the fold-out table on the back of a train seat.
The pile she’s finished is on the 7am chair
next to her: pale white, bolt upright, thick
as a door stop. Her hair is familiar.
She’s wearing the navy blue and grey floral dress
my therapist used to wear and she’s just written
the word MUMMY on a freshly opened envelope.

Carl Burkitt 2023

he says to his mates
wearing Santa hats with a charity logo
embroidered on the white bit.
They clink their seven pints of stout
together and start talking about the state
of Manchester United Football Club.

Carl Burkitt 2023

It’s midnight.
The men with foreheads
like thumb knuckles are singing
and the rest of the train is
waiting for violence. It comes
10 minutes later
in the shape of miss-hit notes
in the chorus of Jingle Bells.

Carl Burkitt 2023

The bloke in the pub says
he likes watching snooker
because the ever changing
formation of the table
reminds him of the struggle
he and his wife had deciding
where the baubles should go
on their Christmas tree until
the year she died.

Carl Burkitt 2023

If I’m walking
and I start thinking
about how I don’t need to think
to make my legs start walking,
I stop walking.

Carl Burkitt 2023