Impressionments Poem by Lonnie Hicks

You gave me your heart
I folded it into my trophy memoirs
having not learned yet
that hearts yearn for summer
not winters cold blowings.

You gave me your smile
I added it to my cumulative memory knickknacks
on my hearts-broken knickknacks shelf
in our tensed clutchings
I misunderstood
the virginity
you gave
in your parents bedroom
counting it as my humiliation
not sensing
your dismayments
and confusions
as to
what was
the fuss was all about
and like wayward
ships
we
wandered
away across
emotional depths
like
ships which never met
siren songs
now drowning
in our sea
of poorly
sensed regrets.

So often
too many
begin
their affections'
voyage this way
floundering
in this sea
of misremembered
grapplings
and disappointing clutchings.

For some subsequent
re-engagements

sooth
bruised
teen aged entanglements
but for some
first entanglements
never erase
and first impressionments
linger longer
than they should.