Tercets are poems composed of three lines or to three-line stanzas. Traditionally the stanzas are linked by rhyme. In this case, these three stanzas find multiple links through other devices and motifs.

Rogue Wave

We waited for “beloved”
and forgot our street number

          When you died, grandfather, 
          your lips pursed around a “ku-”
          But beyond this was breath

          Now we do not speak your words
          but in whispers
          for the clay pots in the kitchen

          They reply in hollow register
          follow priests down white halls
          indexed by pale scribes in trilbies

Three ceramic sisters 
crazed, seeping, silent