The remarriage of Henry Gout

At once the neighbors gathered
in a tool shed late at night
to point their livid fingers
at a portrait of the wife,

She’s stealing him! She’s ruining
our unity! They’d chant,
each neighbor’s rant hard-boiled
as the duties of an ant.

The heaving, bloated body
of the chairman shuddered out
his ardent plot to choke the
boorish wife of Henry Gout

but many disagreements
leapt into the air like moths,
her neck was far too thin to share
amongst the hungry mob

Then, what? (the question came around
each time the council called,)
We eat the things we’ve brought for snack
and exercise our thoughts!

The smell of grease escaped
a row of foil-covered plates,
as neighbors shuffled, porcelain clinked
and mounded savory weight

The chairman split into a grin
to see what fruit had come,
He loved to loathe that woman but
could never skip a plum.