5.27.2008

My Best Friends' Wedding

A few folks at Tim's and Susan's Wedding asked if I'd post the poem that I read. It ain't literary, but they liked it. At one point, about three stanzas in, Susan and I had one of our world famous giggle fits. After the wedding, people asked me if I had gotten choked up because I had looked down for a few seconds. The truth is I was trying and failing to not be the kind of douche bag who laughs at her own jokes. Anyhooter, here it is for those of you not there or in the back and unable to hear my mumbling.


Observations from the Third Wheel



Painting his toenails

was the exact right way

to get the girl of his dreams



and the weight of holding

her purse is a small price to pay

if he gets to watch her dance.



After five years, laughing

until they cry is

better than holding hands anyway.



There’s good and then there’s gyood,

and it’s important to find someone

who knows the difference. And it’s hard



to get mad at a man in a green facial mask.

Sometimes he puts on that sweater

just to see the look on her face right before



she tells him to change. I see the way

they look at each other, and I know what I have

the right to hope for. I realize I already have it.

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