Do you remember the tent,

the rising embers,

Alabaster’s drying leaves

and first chill of fall?

the scandalous admission,

first in little redneck whispers

rising like those embers

Like every flickering glow that

touched your pretty face,

I remember it all.

Do you remember the beach

in winter,

Tampa’s best attempt at cold,

late into the night on the shore,

and talk of dreams and futures,

which slipped from us like the receding tide?

the scandalous situation,

guilty by association,

your future life and children,

and me but a strange line in the Sunset Beach sand,

Like a promise I could not keep,

a commitment of which I could not abide,

I remember everything we tried to hide,

I remember it all.

Do you remember train station in Bristol?

A freezing rain and awkward silence,

the illusion long ago broken,

the connection but vapour in a

foggy dance floor at our destination,

a cold beer, a slip of the tongue, years

of following regrets,

the scandalous admission,

a final solution by two parties

too cowardly to utter it,

drowned out by the ringing of

the approaching coach,

unspoken until uttered exhaustively

during the breakup.
I remember, though I’d rather forget.