What was your first poem?

[nibbed]

I don't remember any of my really early poems, and there was the unpleasant episode of having all my writing burned by a vengeful narcissist, but this was the first poem I ever posted on the internet, back in 2002.  It's a bit painful to recall.  Note the caps at the start of every line -- I, too, once thought that was how things were always done...

Baby

Peanut, pelvic invader, grew
Tail and all, webbed fingers, strange
An image on a green screen, you
Were no bigger than an orange
A jellybean mutant, a parasite
Played organ pinball, bladder
Football, wandered one night
A ribcage for your ladder
And set up camp, burning heart
Awaiting final descent
In darkness did the onslaught start
That terrible main event
Splitting, squelching, writhing pain
Dignity stripped, forgotten
Out! In flooding bloody stain
You came, and I had gotten
Wrinkled, red and slimy you
Still we weren't apart
Opened eyes of cloudy blue
And took hold of my heart

that's precious.

---

I burned all my early works,
when I was a much better, crazier, poet.
Streams of their phrases ribbon
in and out through my memory.
I'm not sure I can recollect them wholly.
Strangely, I don't regret burning them.
It was needful at the time.
Likely I will burn more of my poems,
if I ever get good enough again.


sorry...I thought I made a new reply.