talking about the shops that used to be
where the current shops are now
and how it wishes it could still eat toffees.
It knows everything about nothing important
and can’t quite pronounce the names
of some of the Premier League’s best players.
It likes eating dark chocolate. It likes drinking port.
It whistles when it’s happy and doesn’t tell anyone
when it’s struggling.

© Carl Burkitt 2023

His smile came to work with him today
and asks me if semi-skimmed milk is OK.
It is. He’s delighted! He holds up a little jug
and says Moo. It’s physically impossible
not to join in so we Moo; two grown men
pretending we are in a field feeling grass
on our bellies, whipping our tails against flies,
wondering how low clouds can get,
ignoring the motorway taking people
to places they do not want to be.
His boss jokes she can always give him
his Barista in Training badge straight back
and we are human again, ordering tea,
making tea, wishing each other a nice day.

© Carl Burkitt 2023

I live in America
and the school bus comes to my front door.
I have a knapsack stuffed with books
and super sharp pencils. I spent the morning
on my skateboard wearing a baseball cap
backwards with a picture of some kind of eagle
or bear holding a hockey stick. I’ve got shorts on
and biceps I can kiss. The bus driver knows
my name and asks me how my parents are
and I tell them they’re hard at work but it’s all cool.
I sit a few rows from the back seat
next to a dude called Brad who teaches me
how to blow bubbles with my bubble gum.
We chat about what England might be like,
all red phone boxes and wonky teeth. We wonder
if the people there are as sad as they look
and imagine what vinegar on fries tastes like.

© Carl Burkitt 2023

He’s talking about how he used to be
a tough guy. The kind that would nut you
if you looked at him the wrong way
on a night out or throw litter out his car window.
His son looks impressed
and asks his dad to open up his Babybel.
He does it with his teeth
without breaking a sweat.

© Carl Burkitt 2023

It’s Saturday. I know
because the lady at the farm
has the letters S A T U R D A and Y
stitched across her long sleeved T-shirt
in rainbow letters. She’s with her family:
the lad with snot where his nose should be,
the baby with a chin like a raisin,
the bloke with a beard made of baked beans,
the 8-year-old testing the strength of a slide,
the Jack Russell born with hay instead of fur.
Her shoulders are weighing scales.
The sun is her head watching everyone grow.

© Carl Burkitt 2023

Your skin is stuck to the ceiling.
Your hair just jumped out of the window.
Your heart is Usain Bolt.
Your lungs could blow up a new one.
Your fingers a lightening bolts.
Your giggle is a teenager at the back
of a crematorium unsure of the rules.
Your eyes want to know What’s the point of anything?

© Carl Burkitt 2023

we’re writing stories together
youre not bothering with punctuation
or the fact humans cannot shrink
or grow when they want
you want to add more bits
and colour and get people
where they need to be
quickly

© Carl Burkitt 2023

He’s stuck
flush on the local notice board,
as smooth and white as his hair
or the bathroom wall of a freshly made new-build.
The local theatre group wants him to join them
and tackle a small role in Hamlet.
A Slimming World Poster to his right
reckons he should try walking the Pennines
of a weekend, a Sharpie-scribbled note asks
if he’s ever tried crocheting, a peer-to-peer
mental health group remind him to talk
even if it feels like he can’t. He picks up his brew
with a callus in the shape of a right hand
and checks his phone again.

© Carl Burkitt 2023

We can’t find him
in your book because
he’s in this café
calling you “annoying”
for sitting in “his seat”.

© Carl Burkitt 2023

He’s in the café talking
about how he stood one foot away from the lady
at the airport’s customer service the other week
yelling at the top of his voice.
His finger was pretty much in her eyeball.
His eight-year-old son says it was hilarious
because the lady almost cried,
but it serves her right because
they had to wait so long to board the plane.
They’re talking about the stray dogs
they saw in India and the man says his son
was terrified and the son says he wasn’t
and the man says he saw his eyes well up.
The man’s new girlfriend is just sipping her milkshake.
It looks like it’s strawberry. Or maybe raspberry.

© Carl Burkitt 2023