The Three Brothers
Josh-Robin Young // November 3, 2011
The Low String…
Leads the way
Owns the song
his subverted baritone
vibrates in your bones
the strong and silent type
goes to church
lives in the country
his hands are callused and ripe,
as though he were working on his fingering all day,
and not his garden.
a real man, as they say
the kind of man that every girl dreams of marrying
but that only one ever will.
The wise one
The favorite son
The Middle String…
Largely ignored
but reliably steady
Does the job that no one else will
because no one else will.
he fills in those spaces … like silence…
where his family would fall apart
He knows that. they know that.
but he’s not one to go out of tune about it.
He’s a second string
the middle child
Not high enough to take attention
Not low enough to set the tone
but let it be known
like a bard with a song
that in the middle, he was never alone.
The High String…
wants the attention
lacks the regard
His fiddle-like vocal chords
go from E to B in less than three beats
He’s quick on his toes too,
dancing across the notes
making them blush…
Like that one melting melody
he will sweep you off your feet
and leave you on your back
But he played the world too hard,
to keep from getting bored
They broke his string
and now
he’s only playing minor chords
