Overheard Snippets – A Poem

1.	As Niamh and I hollered in confidence,
2.	exchanging principles over the din,
3.	I overheard someone’s mother accused
4.	‘murderer’ and almost knocked over my gin.

5.	Searching the diners' faces around us,
6.	I discerned the red struggle of choked mirth.
7.	Wet eyes and clamped mouths also betrayed them,
8.	Despite smothering bites of surf and turf.

9.	I gazed about puzzled, seeking the cause,
10.	Craving knowledge of such hilarity,
11.	When another snippet of anecdote
12.	Sniggered forth, adding more depravity.

13.	“Text ‘er t’find out!” Vickers reported,
14.	Trickling details to keep the group bated.
15.	Anon, a ripe casket of crowing
16.	Spluttered forth with no hope to stay gated.

17.	Giving up my attempts to decipher
18.	A subject, a topic, a character,
19.	It turned out just as crude as suspected,
20.	A tale with death at its centre.

21.	For most of the group were private school peers,
22.	Alumni once baffled to discover,
23.	That a girl from their year sadly perished,
24.	And one messaged the deceased to uncover.