Poetic licence: BT has unveiled its new red phone box. There remain 15,000 of the old K6 design on British streets. Often mistaken for loos, they are still an essential part of early courtship rituals.
SNOGGING IN A PHONE BOX
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Your support makes all the difference.In tea-rose red
The phone box then
Pretty on the green
With its cottage panes
We snogged in there
In our early teens
The tousled blonde
With smudged blue eyes
Who packed her boyfriend in
For me. Press Button B.
They don't come back
The oblong shape
Relieved by curves
Of bird-limed roof
The door was solid. Heavy
With its straps and handle
She phoned her friends
About the scandal.
That heady smell
Of cigarettes
And no regrets. Press Button B
They don't come back
Late afternoon
Mid-autumn. Warm
The directory was torn
The half-term sun
Just she and I
And pennies for the guy
Then back at school
By now alone
She'd packed me in
Another phone. Press Button B
They don't come back
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