Schadenfreude Poem by William F Dougherty

Her confidantes endorsed her trim divorce,
clumped like raisins in the courtroom's calm,
noting how quickly a decree can disperse
bridge teams, guest lists, golf dates, a common name.
Precisely coiffed, her comforters discourse
how her navy-blue dress enhanced her aplomb
as she described how bliss became a curse-
her voice white gold; her spine, titanium.





Cheeping at lunch, her intimates recall
proverbs of parting as their diamonds tap
crystals of Beaujolais; quite disenthralled,
she slouches, sucks her teeth, and briskly raps
a bread-stick on a jagged oyster shell,
smirking as its brittle bone neatly snaps.