The One Before The First is a poetic autopsy of a love that never fully lived, but never really died. In this deeply personal collection, each poem is a shard of memory, tracing the slow, aching descent of someone awakening to desire, intimacy and love for the very first time.

This is the haunting of almosts: the texts that meant too much, the nights you couldn’t sleep, the illusion of being seen, and the brutal clarity that follows disillusionment. It’s about loving someone who gave you only fragments, yet somehow still took everything. Through bruised reflections and visceral, unflinching imagery, it speaks to anyone who’s been undone by a not-quite.

By the one who came before the first.

My sternum buckled,
ribs folding inward
like a cowering spider,
and you—so flip,
telling me you'd rowed the whole trip.’


A blurred black and white photo of an empty classroom with a person standing and looking away. Overlaid text reads, 'The One Before the First' by Kerry Burton-Galley.

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Coming soon…

A raw, unapologetic poetry collection about the madness of modern life—Trigger Warning tackles identity politics, gender ideology, mental health culture, feminism, class, performative activism, speciesism and the silencing of truth in a world addicted to outrage.

It says what you’re no longer allowed to say—and doesn’t care if you’re offended.

These poems strip back the slogans and hashtags to reveal the fear, hypocrisy, and desperation hiding beneath. There are no safe spaces here. Just brutal honesty.

If you’re exhausted by censorship, lies, and social media sheep-speak, this is your book. Trigger Warning is not for the easily offended. It’s for the quietly furious.

You’ve been warned.

Graffiti wall with a sinister clown face and the words "TRIGGER WARNING" above it, signed by Kerry Burton-Galley.