Ties That Bind

The three things exercise:  write a poem that mentions, lists, or emphasizes three things.

Two's company, three's a crowd
they say,
except for the night when we three,
she, I, you,
and you leaving us,
were suspended in time, waiting...


Then three was the truth of us
and we both knew it.
We spoke across you
the way we'd done when we were teenagers
and you in the middle, smoking intently,
ignoring us both,
making your choice.


He loved me, she said.
But you always loved him.
She wasn't asking. I didn't answer.


And there in that room
with you between us, leaving us,
she gave me what I'd always hoped to have -
a chance to hold your hand,
a chance to say I love you,


and the return of her friendship.