Tonight's Poet Corner: Dust to Dust

Dust to Dust
by Belinda Roddie

My bucket is full of ashes,
white as receding snow,
the hillsides bare and brown
as I trek toward my sarcophagus.
It is ornate, amber-hued, like
the heavy sun against my eyes.

This coffin was meant for me,
not you. And yet, it is your
laughter I deposit here. Your
smile, in crisp, non-human specks.
Your promises as thin as paper.
The lost words burn without heat,
leaving a hole in my pail as large
as the chasm in my chest.