Cowboy Ropes One Off From The Herd

Seattle, Washington

After only a few months dating, a new partner has broken up what appeared to be a happy polycule, taking the person he was seeing with him into a monogamous relationship.

“I told them he was polyamorous in name only,” a source close to the polycule confidentially told this reporter, “but I’m so sorry I was right.”

In checking in with the partners and polycule left behind, the emotions were palpable, but so was the sense that this was just a wild offshoot of new relationship energy and brain chemistry that would have passed with waiting. “Even if it does,” said Bill, one of the former partners, “it’s just over and sad, because it’s a real rejection to be told that you don’t know someone you’ve been with for years as they meet someone new who just wants to pull a bait-and-switch but they think ‘knows them better than anyone else ever has’ now. I don’t think that’s salvageable later.” He may be right. Folks who fall victim to cowboys and cowgirls may later return to polyamory, but they seldom return to the partners or polycules they were ‘roped off from’ to go to greener pastures with those cowboys.

The cowboy has ensconced himself with his now-monogamous partner in a one-bedroom apartment and declines to comment on this story.