<\/p>\n
A photo of Melissa<\/strong><\/p>\n The mouth is wide <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n DS Maolalai<\/strong> recently returned to Ireland after four years away, now spending his days working dispatch for a medical supply company and his nights drinking wine. His\u00a0first collection,\u00a0Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden,<\/em> was published in 2016 by the Encircle Press. He has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.<\/p>\n A photo of Melissa The mouth is wide on the face and the head tilted to one side with a question. Behind her there’s nothing but shrubbery. She could be in a field somewhere but I know better: This photo set on my table is lying to people, because it was taken on that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16303"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16307,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16303\/revisions\/16307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\non the face
\nand the head
\ntilted to one side with a question.
\nBehind her
\nthere’s nothing but shrubbery.
\nShe could be in a field somewhere
\nbut I know better:
\nThis photo
\nset on my table
\nis lying to people,
\nbecause it was taken
\non that corner of Kensington and Dundas
\nand right out of sight
\nis the shell of a shop that sold postcards
\nand those hippy hemp dresses
\nwith a Closed for Business sign
\nhung crooked in the window.
\nFurther back
\nis The Handlebar
\nwhere I used to drink,
\nacross the road
\na gym
\nand a couple of offices.
\nAnd up further back
\nthere’s the park
\nand the corner
\nwhere junkies hung out
\nbefore they tore it all up
\nfor houses.
\nI’m writing this down
\nto remind myself
\nin case I put it in my wallet
\nand forget
\nand don’t look again
\nfor another two years.<\/p>\n