Poem:

6th November

This morning my son and I

searched the lane for fallen rockets.

We found only one:

 a charred remnant amongst sodden leaves

run over by a car.

'Obviously a dud,' I said, 'burnt out

before it had even reached those trees.'

'No Dad,' he said.

'This fell back to earth

after it had scorched the stars.'

Stuart Larner

(earlier version first published disguised in prose on the letters page Scarborough Evening News , 10/11/08).