Last First Day of School

Goodbye, Target, KMart, WalMart,
Goodbye, grocery stores in strange cities, to buy mac and cheese and granola bars and goldfish and cold medicine,
Goodbye, Staples with overpriced binders and ethernet cords we never needed but bought because they said we needed them, and XL sheets made to fit XL beds they only make for college dorms
and toiletry baskets new each year because the old one
broke
got sticky
is gross
got lost
the handle comes off
isn't mine. You never bought me one.
And surge protector cords.
And Rubbermaid carriers and
stuffed animals being transported to sit on dorm beds
and graphing calculators never needed after one year
and wide ruled paper and pencil boxes and colored pencils and
so many folders (I have an orange one and a red one and a blue one and a green one and I need one more and they don't have any other colors.)
and lunch boxes that will smell bad by October
and juice boxes and fruit rollups
and new shoes because the old ones stopped fitting last week
and new clothes and first day outfits and meeting the bus
and snacks after school as my children run down the road.
Goodbye, children, running down the road.
Twenty two years of school,
of first days and last days,
and here is today, the last first one,
Goodbye, first days
and all the days that followed,
Goodbye my children,
I will miss you.