When I die

I want my ashes packed into a rocket
and fired into space. I want to be
the crowd of stars where Love hid his face,
the fistful of filings we stole
from the jar in a dull Chemistry lesson
and sprinkled on the burner;
How I’ll fizz and crackle; I will not be
any old firework exploding over
your dark garden, but a new constellation
invisible to the naked eye
and before the final burnout
I will see the Earth in a new light
and the stars close to, like that Lego man
alone in space juddering up, up, up.

Carole Bromley is a teacher from York. Her first collection, A Guided Tour of the Ice House, was published in 2011 by Smith/Doorstop.

Ready

I am ready for the big emptiness;
the dark that goes from dark to dark
and leaves no gaps;
the silence that comes in great gulps of
infinity;
the blankness after the last full stop;
The last pulse of the last star…

But I wish you’d phone.

David Seddon was born in Liverpool and now lives in Congleton, where he is a counsellor (https://twitter.com/#!/SeddonDavid).  He has many poems published in various ezines, magazines and anthologies.  He is currently submitting for his first collection of poems.