In A Box In A Drawer

There they are in a box in a drawer,
I pause to think,
then think some more,
about what they mean,
about what they were for,
about why they linger in a box in a drawer.

A commemorative coin, two medals,
WI brass and gilt badge, with enamels,
World War Two ‘For Home and Country’.
The coin shows, to put it quite bluntly,
failed bridegroom and bride.
Whilst badge and medals mark honour with pride.

The medals belong to a younger me,
I could swim in those days, lengthily,
A silver, a gold,
a story to be told,
they drown in a box in a drawer,
they can be found in a box in a drawer.

There they sit in a box in a drawer,
what will they mean,
when I leave through that door?
The door ma and pa took a few years ago,
the one that goes one way,
as far as we know.

Memories
remain,
and these,
nothing more.
Nothing more lingers,
in a box in a drawer.

Polly Stretton © 2012