What were they up to yesterday,
these red and green jelly-legged things
lying face down on gravel
miles from anyone who knows
what they are made of?
© Carl Burkitt 2022
Jelly Babies on a cliffside
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My favourite noise is the OOH! someone makes after stopping themselves from falling over on a wet rock
Ooh! Who put that there?
Ooh! That was embarrassing.
Ooh! That was a close one.
Ooh! I’m alive.
© Carl Burkitt 2022
Rich
He will not learn your name
because when you are in your coach
heading off to Scafell Pike
he will be taking a new group
up and down Ben Nevis this afternoon
and again tomorrow morning
and Tuesday afternoon
and Wednesday morning
and Thursday afternoon
and Friday morning and afternoon
and Saturday morning.
He will not learn your name
because he is using his brain power
to learn Czech for his wife.
© Carl Burkitt 2022
A puddle wearing waterproofs
He’s sloshing about
under a coat stopping him
turning into a waterfall.
Look into his face
to see the strength of your eyes.
© Carl Burkitt 2022
Uniform
I don’t know the names of trees.
They’re standing in a line
like kids in a school photo
I could’ve done better to remember,
like the guy with spiky hair
who never liked my cheese sandwiches,
the bald one who turned his nose up
at the pear in my lunchbox,
the lad who used to try
and persuade me to hide in the bushes
to avoid cross country running.
These trees look like naturals
in their green and brown uniform,
ready to clap leaves with encouragement.
© Carl Burkitt 2022
The sunshine works in a Gretna café
Gretna Green is grey today unless
you are in the café this woman works in.
The rain on the windows is the glass
crying because it has now mouth
to talk to her. She is a thumbs up
wearing a cap. Tea bags are crossing
their fingers to be picked up by hers.
You’d think only an octopus could
put their arm around eight
colleagues’ shoulders at once.
Nice walking boots, she says
as the laces promise to try their best.
© Carl Burkitt 2022
There’s a barbershop at Lymm Services
No doubt the barber is asked
to trim the length of traffic jams,
lift tires curls off hard shoulders.
Just imagine his Gregg’s and Costa banter,
dandruff making him crave pastry flakes.
There is a minibus waiting in the rain
carrying seats barely capable
of holding the knees of a 6 foot 4 hiker
or the brain of a broken over-thinker.
What can I do for you? the barber might ask.
Anything nice planned this afternoon?
© Carl Burkitt 2022
I clicked ‘yes’ when the ATM asked if I wanted an advice slip
and out slid
a hair-thin piece of paper
telling me never to forget
the difference between
imagination and a lie.
© Carl Burkitt 2022
Action
She’s pointing a camera
fit for a film studio at the window
of a deli selling egg mayonnaise baps.
She’s waving her left hand
and the man on the other side of the glass
is shuffling a few inches to his right
as if being flicked by magic.
He’s pretending to text on his phone.
His thumbs are moving too fast
to be realistic. She’s doesn’t say anything,
she just leans into the camera
as her tongue concentrates between her teeth.
I wonder who he‘s pretending to text.
I wonder if he’s pretending they will reply.
© Carl Burkitt 2022
Wonky
Sleeping feet twitch
and process running
across pebbled beaches,
navigating gravel carparks,
greasy chip shop tiles,
that curb by the furniture place,
that slope by the train station.
They wobble and wonder
if it is them that are wonky.
© Carl Burkitt 2022
Carl tells tales 