For today’s prompt, take the phrase “The Last (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles could include: “The Last Cookie,” “The Last Roll of Toilet Paper,” “The Lasting Impression,” “The Last Word,” and/or “The Last Starfighter.”
I guarantee this won’t be the last prompt of the month. So get your poem on today, and I’ll see you again tomorrow. — Robert Lee Brewer, Writer’s Digest
the last time
Mothers sometimes lament
in contemplative moments
you often don’t know
that something you do
is happening for the last time
There was a last time I carried you
you were at least six
and loved to be carried
although of course you could
get around perfectly well by yourself
There was a last time I tied your shoes
although this, too, was something
you were content to let me do
even after you had the skills
In Montessori education
there’s a philosophy of
”help me … do it myself.”
It is one to which
you did not ascribe
You were happy for help
or to have me do it for you
so you could focus on
whatever lit up your imagination
and the latest idea you had
and how to bring it to fruition.
The last time:
something is commonplace,
usual,
everyday,
until it isn’t.
There was a last time I touched you,
this time in stark awareness it was the last.
I held your hand
and tried in vain to store up
a lifetime’s worth of handholding.
I used up all the Kleenex in the room
and all the light inside me
and walked out in darkness
the last time.