Matthew Stewart works in the Spanish wine trade. He has had poems in London Magazine and The Rialto, etc, while Happenstance Press published his pamphlet collection, Inventing Truth, in 2011. A second Happenstance chapbook, titled Tasting Notes, came out in September 2012.

Milko

Bottles chimed like a clock on the doorstep.
By the ebbs and surges of daily pints
you knew who’d grown, who’d aged, who’d upped and left.
Your float’s low hum was the routine soundtrack
to Ready brek, wonky ties and dull dawns.

Undercut by another out-of-town,
you’ll be my generation’s pie-n-mash,
a tale suffered by countless grandchildren
while something else is also dying out
and patiently rehearsing for your role.

Matthew Stewart

Previously published in London Magazine and Inventing Truth (HappenStance Press 2011)