One Short Affair After Another (Sonnet)

Temptations crooking fingers pinched a nerve seducing me in moments of distress, and I, so hungry for the calming curves; I flirted with my old desire I guess. The lapse perhaps is just a lapse and yet the guilt is still too raw, the smoke too fresh. How can I cure a failure and forget the rituals that haunt my tainted chest? Ah, time, sweet time won't fleece this strung-out fool of weaknesses that count backwards to when I worshipped you by cartons, let you rule just as I let you rule my moods again. I've not forgotten you, not one small trace, the cough, the rasp, the residue I taste.