A bit of time travelling this morning – this is the first poem I had published in a literary magazine. It was published in Obsessed With Pipework, a Flarestack publication, in 2006 when I was 18. Before that, I also had poems published in two anthologies (in 2004 and 2005, so at the age of 16 and 17), but this was my first magazine publication. I actually submitted a longer version of this poem, but the editor decided he liked the firs three lines and asked if he could just publish those. I still remember the full poem off by heart:

One

I know you’re just
a temporary
take-my-hand
who
laughs in the face
of raw human
emotion,
who is oblivious
to this.
Stop
and admit
because it wasn’t me
and you’re the only one
who can touch this,
this tender, weathered face
eroded by laughter
and smiles
and the crash
of the
waves.