Number 3

number 3

Is never free

Always arriving after

number 1

and afternumber two

number three is theunmentionable

forgotten middle

The child missing at the edge of

the family albumn

A love mistake

on holiday

unplanned

unwanted

number three

wears the old hand me down clothes

Trouser a decade out of date

Jumpers old

shoes smelling of number two's foot odour

Number 3 is like the War

Don't mention the WAR

or number three

who grows up alone

uninvited

to parties for only

1's and 2's

Number three

mustfind a number 4 or 5

To keep hisor her head above water

to stay alive

Number three is never free

of being last

of walking past the door where four and five

Have thrived in knowing

they have survived six and seven

While three is not counted
in

jumped past to 12 4 56

The pairing is in the clue to who survived who

and why three is struggling to survive

Yet today even today 3 travels alone

Unheard

Unseen

Unknown

Can you tellme why?

poem by Yvette Smith
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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