Photography © Glenn Bowie

 

The Rosary Thief

The case is simple, Chief Inspector Japp!
Hercule Poirot will analyze all leads,
Employing grey cells in his thinking cap,
Revealing who has stolen golden beads! …
Our thief looks like a foreigner with clout.
Sounds Russian? And his motive? Who gains most
Advantage if Joe Biden, who’s devout,
Receives a gift-wrapped rosary by post,
Yet doesn’t know it’s from a foreign foe?
This mastermind of diplomatic woes
Had hoped to plant his stolen goods on Joe.
It does not work. And why? … Because Poirot’s
Exceptional finesse connecting dots
Finds Putin’s who robbed Mary, Queen of Scots!

 

Mike Mesterton-Gibbons is a Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Florida State University. His acrostic sonnets have appeared in Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Better Than Starbucks, the Creativity Webzine, Current Conservation, the Ekphrastic Review, Grand Little Things, Light, Lighten Up Online, New Verse News, Rat’s Ass Review, the Satirist, the Washington Post and WestWard Quarterly. His poem was inspired by news of Mary Queen of Scots’ rosary beads being stolen from Arundel Castle.

Glenn Bowie is a published poet, lyricist and photographer from the Boston area. He also owns and operates an elevator company that supplies custom-built elevators for clients from New England to Hollywood. Author of two poetry and photograph collections (Under the Weight of Whispers and Into the Thorns and Honey) on Big Table Publishing, he donates all profits from his books to various charities for the homeless and local animal shelters.