Welcome to the second episode of Dickens and Quips!This week we have Joe Thomas on the show and I shall be reading from How to Carry Fire by Christina Thatcher.Find Sam at @joefishthomas on Twitter and InstaChristina Thatcher is @writetoempower on Twitter. We are atTwitter: @dickensandquipsInstagram: @dickensandquipsEmail: [email protected] for this week is "fire extinguisher" and you don't have to be an established poet to submit a poem.Featured poems:An Improper Kindness Worth TellingWhat IfAll available in How to Carry Fire by Christina Thatcher.Supermarket by Dee Dickens I’m on the floor in the grocery storehowling.Great globbingsobbingsnotty trails on my jumper.Everyone has been so nice.It’s just thatmy brave face is so damn tired.My arms ache from wiping their tears.My throat burns with words unsaid.I make tea and hope they don't taste the salt water.Supermarket guy comes over to ask,Is everything alright?No, supermarket guy, everything is not alright.I want Yorkshire pudding,and I can’t find the batter mix.He’s smiling, but his eyes say confused,there's a tilt of a headfrom a passing old woman telling meI should just make my own.I can’t remember how.I don’t know the ingredients.I can’t focus on anythingbut the emptiness of my belly.Except that I need to haveYeast. To know that something inside me is still alive.Scrimshaw by Eley WilliamsImaginary friend: by Joe ThomasI.I’m an imaginary friendthat’s been thought into existenceor maybe you wished hard enough.I don’t know. You tell me.I’m the madman who fell from the sky,and before anyone says it, I’m not him.Mr love of my life and Mr man of my dreams aren’t nearly chaotic enough.Mr Right’s entrance runs too smoothlyto come down to Earth with a crash.How boring.No, I’m not here to be your first choicebut I know what“I like you…a lot…like more than a friend…but not…you get me?”means when I hear it.Don’t worry. It worked.I’ve been doing thislong enough to knowwe wouldn’t be heretalking right now if it hadn’t.II.If you’re interestedhere are the rules.Take food as a given.If you stalk my social media,if I find a heart reacton a selfie I took with my catbecause I’m in the pictureyou’re doing it wrong.If you scroll past my pictures,“Oh my god!He’s so cute!I LOVE him!”and you didn’t mean the dogbut come out with “I want in,”you’re brave, I’ll give you that much…If you try to make me choose“Who is it going to be?Friend 1Or friend 2?”when ‘universal’by definition means:“BOTH OF YOU.”I’m sorry,it’s not going to work out.III.In return, I can only give you a hugone you can still feel long after it’s finishedone that clings on and will not let you go.If I do it right, it should squeezeevery “You’re not as good as you thinkyou are” thought until they popI write you a pretentious poemwhich, at the end of the day,is just a glorified shitpostthat I crafted to look like a love letterbecause I don’t know how else to say it.And yes, I do it better than mostof your real friends ever couldWe keep our streak going.We let months go by between conversationswhich last for two messages,an unspoken “You didn’t have to answerbut thank you for coming back.”No, being left on read is not rude,we haven’t run out of small talkIt’s an electric “Until next timeLove from an imaginary friendwho was lucky enough to come to life.”Prompt for this week is Fire Extinguisher