Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 131, No. 5. Whole No. 801, May 2008

Death of the Party by Cornelia Snider Yarrington

Another faculty party. The usual suspects were there:

disgruntled profs from assistant to full and the clown hired as their Chair.

He’d arrived from a distant department lit by his references’ glow,

science talents touted in phrases so grand, you’d wonder why he was let go.

Unmentioned, his talent for staying lit from his very own lab beaker glass,

or the figure he cut as he staggered the halls and stumbled into his class.

Left out was his knack for mixing up files, or settling salaries on whim,

or assigning space on a hangover scale measurable only by him.

Omitted from any reference were the female assistants he lost

through a fetish for buttocks in lab coats — or the lawsuits’ ultimate cost.

Sometime in the faculty party, radioactive Polonium 210

spiked the ubiquitous beaker of booze with an ultimate Mickey Finn.

Slip or slight malice of forethought? The DA scratched his head,

wondering why the party went on with the guest of honor dead.

Copyright © 2008 Cornelia Snider Yarrington