Memorabilia memorials in a battered box

Fragments of near forgotten time

Dog eared photos finger stroked

Badge pins speckled with rust

Fool's Gold found in a silver disc

Estuary wails in a Country House

Snogging tongues beneath sodium lights

Trembling sodden under drizzle skies

A love bite necklace gracing flesh

Displayed in a delerium of coupledom

Yet I wait and dwell and twitch

Knit one, pearl one, drop a stitch

Double word score, so twenty-six

Mind still clinging to this unscratched itch

Pernod and black, the pool ball click 

Swigging cider beneath railway arches

Fumbled explorations, your groping touch

Fingers rummaging my hopeful crotch

Bra clasps, a skill set yet to learn

Dishevelled outfits, glimpses of flesh 

The silences that stretched on for weeks

Words you never seemed to utter

An accessory to proclaim your cool

Taken out, played with, then ignored 

Yet I wait and twitch and dwell

Trapped within this jigsaw hell

Image splinters I can't dispel

Still not ready to say farewell 

Taut breasts pressed to heaving chest

Squirming in my too small bed

Slobbering tongues in silent battle

Nervous navigation of virginal lands

Swollen stiffness against my palm

Unversed fingers in uninitiated flesh

Burdened expectation, filled with his

Heated, sticky, seeping wetness

As stagnant breath plays across flushed faces

And only emptiness is left

Yet I twitch and dwell and wait

Dead emotions I can't quite sate

Sentiment past its sell by date

Memories of my own first mate