"Book Ends"

Come Close...
I've something to tell you:
I secretly harbour a dream
To have a book of my poetry published.
I'd even be sad enough to
Do it myself
If I had the money
To put it on the shelf
Where it would gather dust.
Like the one I am reading
Which has never been off the shelf
Since nineteen eighty one
When I was still at school
Way back when
I'd just started then
To pick up a pen.
But it was just a phase
Not a craze
So I grew out of the habit.
Who knows?
If I had carried on
Like teenage masturbation
Maybe I'd have been published.
Not to great acclaim
But, like that book
Untouched by anyone's
Hand but mine
In thirty two years.
Would I have 'Come Close'?

Dulwich Poet 26th June 2013

( One of the booklets I borrowed from the Poetry Library is called 'Come Close', by Nigel Gray, published in 1979. It has sat on their shelves, with no issues since January 1981)