{"id":4784,"date":"2026-09-12T15:39:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T10:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/food4thoughtfoundation.org\/journal\/?p=4784"},"modified":"2026-09-12T15:50:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T10:20:20","slug":"the-last-bench","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/food4thoughtfoundation.org\/journal\/the-last-bench\/","title":{"rendered":"THE LAST BENCH"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE LAST BENCH<\/strong><\/p>\n

The last bench knows
\nwho forgot their homework,<\/p>\n

who drew galaxies
\nbehind the timetable,<\/p>\n

who watched rain
\ninstead of equations,<\/p>\n

who whispered
\n\u201cI don’t understand\u201d<\/p>\n

too softly
\nfor the teacher to hear.<\/p>\n

It has carried
\nunfinished notes,<\/p>\n

secret jokes,<\/p>\n

exam-day prayers,<\/p>\n

and names carved
\nwith enormous confidence
\ninto very small wood.<\/p>\n

Every year
\nnew students arrive<\/p>\n

believing the classroom
\nbelongs to them.<\/p>\n

Every year
\nthey leave.<\/p>\n

The last bench remains,<\/p>\n

holding all the things
\nwe thought
\nnobody noticed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE LAST BENCH The last bench knows who forgot their homework, who drew galaxies behind the timetable, who watched rain instead of equations, who whispered \u201cI don’t understand\u201d too softly for the teacher to hear. It has carried unfinished notes, secret jokes, exam-day prayers, and names carved with enormous confidence into very small wood. Every<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4785,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[588],"tags":[590],"class_list":["post-4784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poems","tag-the-poetry-lab","enable-dropcap","disable-2-columns"],"yoast_head":"\nTHE LAST BENCH - Food4Thought Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/food4thoughtfoundation.org\/journal\/the-last-bench\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"THE LAST BENCH - Food4Thought Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"THE LAST BENCH The last bench knows who forgot their homework, who drew galaxies behind the timetable, who watched rain instead of equations, who whispered \u201cI don’t understand\u201d too softly for the teacher to hear. It has carried unfinished notes, secret jokes, exam-day prayers, and names carved with enormous confidence into very small wood. 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