The Last Poem by Carolyn Brunelle

One by one they have
all left her,
brothers, sisters,
parents; spouse.
She is the last.
The last one of her generation
passing through time
and into her family’s history.
At eighty, she is stretched thin,
unsteady, unsure and unnerved.
The time has come to move.
Moving in with children was
the last thing she desired but....
few choices are left now.
Life has its own way
of narrowing our path.
And, she has secretly yearned
for them clamoring around her again,
having come to realize
how big the world is
when you are all alone;
when you are the last.