‘O the unrivalled stench of branded skin’
The use of O suggests that the event is dramatised or retrospectively. Looking back maybe in pain.
1st person
This might mean the the poem is a little more personal and meaningful. Feeling the extreme of emotion ( love and pain )
the last stanza ( my butterfingered way )
Might be showing how silly and funny the writer was before. Looking retrospectively at the good times. How love and nerves had past and now he is left with just remorse and regret. He is not apologetic but feels that things could lead have been better if an alternative had happened (asking he/she/it to marry him) I get this from the use of ‘Don’t believe me,please…’ and ‘…my buttered fingered way…’
React!