The Three Closest

The three closest were reunited
in that familiar, nostalgic setting
Each one had changed individually
Different stages in the life of a man
One of them still didn't drink,
the second had given it up,
and the third was in the midst
The third looked the first in the eyes
and said with a chuckle,
'I wasn't thinking of you,'
when he broke their old similarity
It was a worn out conviction,
and the first, a realist, knew that,
but he still clung onto it
The words made their mark,
as they might have been intended
Defeated by five benign words
The first, once their leader,
had always blatantly asserted
he was a good friend to the others
But with that sentence
his fall from grace and power
was thrown into the foreground
He realized that for all his sway,
for all his unflinching loyalty,
he'd never been the friend
either had needed him to be
And again, he was humbled