Gabriel Spera's "My Ex-Husband" by Kendall Butt

      The poem "My Ex-Husband" is a classic example of how spouses view their ex's after an unpleasant divorce. The main character displays quite clearly throughout the entire poem her internal struggle to hate this man, which in turn reveals her underlying love for him. The spiteful and sarcastic tone used in the poem contributes to the fact that this woman hates her ex-husband and has moved on to a new man, though at the same time her obsession with her past keeps her from moving on internally.
      For instance, the woman describes her ex-husband as looking "almost lovable" in the photograph, though we know from the rest of the poem that this woman indeed once found this man to be completely lovable, but was forced to fall out of love with him once he allegedly cheated on her. By attempting to come off as offhand and careless about her last marriage experience, the true emotions of the speaker are revealed as her obsessive tone takes over.
      She does not pause to change the subject from her ex-husband until the entirety of the poem is through when she abruptly changes the subject to what her and her guest shall eat for dinner. Shortly following this the tone is again hastily switched back to the "triumph" of this woman's divorce settlement that landed her with some imported champagne flutes. She claims that she "chose to never ever get stuck" on the "short end of the stick", though by the end of the poem we can see that she is indeed stuck in this relationship even though literally she is no longer in it, and gained nothing out of it but material goods and a narcissistic attitude. The husband has clearly left her on the short end of the stick as his absence shows he has moved on and left her with a picture of him framed in her home to reflect on.