What Was Left Was Found In Death

What Was Left Was Found In Death
(An Iambic Inanity)


Beside the woman’s body on the rocks
Beneath the cliff, upon the pediment,
There lay a padlocked, leathered oaken box.
The sergeant had the item logged and sent

For thorough scrutiny, then bent to task
Inspecting the remains for clues on scene.
A pair of officers were sent to ask
Of locals near-at-hand what they had seen.

The cause of death seemed trauma from the fall;
The bloodless rock however raised a doubt.
It seemed that she’d been strangled with a shawl
Then thrown post mortem, lest there be a shout.

The husband of the hapless lady came,
All frenzied at his missing wife, he said:
“We argued, then she fled, oh I’m to blame.”
“To blame for what?” At which, he turned beet red.

“How did you know she’d died?” “I thought, she may
Have killed herself; she left in tears, depressed.”
But soon, interrogation had its way.
Confession followed, then a swift arrest.

But of the box, a puzzlement ensued.
It held a grisly heart, all mummified,
To which a note was pinned, in writing crude:
“Here’s what you left in ‘Frisco when I died.”

The husband, daft, he pled insanity,
And told of ghostly visions at full moon:
“My wife, high on a hill, she calls for me,
And terms me heartless, singing some odd tune.”