The speaker looks back with shame at two women who once cared for them, and admits they never really paid those women proper attention. Their own sadness, which they call an "affliction," was so consuming that it blocked out everything else, including the people trying to help. The word "selfish" is turned against the speaker, and the confession feels plain and unguarded.
The women's gifts are named in small, concrete things: a Saint Christopher, a few Blue John stones. These suggest protection, prayer and quiet kindness. The speaker took that grace in, drinking and laughing, but let it slip into the past rather than build anything from it. The last lines suggest that the sadness didn't just cloud the present; it also ate up the future.
The mood is rueful and sorrowful, with a sense of too-late understanding. The short, broken lines and the trailing double full stop make the poem feel like someone hesitating as they admit something painful.