{"id":193,"date":"2011-03-13T09:09:07","date_gmt":"2011-03-13T09:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=193"},"modified":"2011-03-13T09:09:07","modified_gmt":"2011-03-13T09:09:07","slug":"edwin-stockdale-has-a-smile-by-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/edwin-stockdale-has-a-smile-by-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Edwin Stockdale has a smile by design"},"content":{"rendered":"

Smiles by Design<\/span>


The brickwork drab and crumbling.<\/span>

Leaves gust along the street<\/span>
settling on the beer hatch.<\/span>
The pub name is spelt wrong.<\/span>
A smile tugs the corner of my mouth.<\/span>

At the Pitcher and Piano the glass makes mirrors,<\/span>
memories of music and laughter spill out.<\/span>
There\u2019s a display of bottles by the door.<\/span>
They make a toothy smile.<\/span>

A streetlamp dressed in austere Queen Victoria black:<\/span>
passersby ignore its beauty.<\/span>
The daylight moon peers through decorative ironwork.<\/span>
A smile tugs the corner of my mouth.<\/span>

The Church of Wales in the middle of the city<\/span>
quite a way from the border.<\/span>
On the roof, the cross has one arm missing.<\/span>
A smile leaves the corner of my mouth.<\/span>

Smiles by design at the dentist.<\/span>



* Edwin Stockdale<\/span> lives in Chester and has been published in Poetry Scotland, Poetry Monthly, Fire<\/span> and Poetry Cornwall<\/span>. He was shortlisted for the Flintshire Prize<\/span> in 2008 and 2009.<\/span>
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