Well, there was a body, true . . .
but despite the many musings of a crew
of would-be sleuths, not a single view
seemed right. Professor Verging-
on-Violet and Mrs. Winking-White knew
the evidence was slight, so too
the motivations of the suspects, so few.
What was indisputable was that glue
had made the body immovable, and you
could scarcely conceive of a homicide diverging:
a smothering, then sticking down of hu-
man––our host. Any murder we eschew,
but by asphyxiation and affixation? Phew!
Miss Apparently Apricot was due
an apology. While suspicions of her grew,
and she turned scarlet, she was not emerging
as the guilty one because there was no clue
that pointed toward her. Even Colonel Goo-
Gold had to register that truth; in lieu
of his initial hunch, so rash, he flew
to her defense at last, inveigling all of us to rue
our qualms about her innocence. Purging
all our doubts, we turned at once to someone new:
Mrs. Tickle-of-Teal––was she the guilty one? On cue,
she started to explain her reason for the sword she drew
from a sheath and brandished. “I have to
show you this,” she asserted. “Look, it’s blue
and rubber!” So it was. “I was splurging
when I bought it for my daughter Sue
who’ll play King Arthur soon.” Just then a gnu,
of brindled hue, from a local zoo, joined this stew
in the study; Apparently Apricot fainted. Adieu,
said Mr. Minor-Mint. We tried to shoo
the gnu, but the Colonel sprang to action. Urging
confession, yanking at ratty fur, he threw
to the floor what was costume, wig. We all went whew!
For the bogus gnu, it was true, was our villain. The clue?
Tied to his waist on a rope was a pot of glue.
Reemerging, our Apricot knew the gnu, screaming, “It’s you?!
Jacquelyn “Jacsun” Shah holds A.B., M.A., M.F.A. & Ph.D. degrees––English and creative writing–poetry. She has published a chapbook, small fry and a full-length book, What to Do with Red, and poems in various journals. She was Literal Latté’s 2018 Food Verse Contest winner.
