On The Fate Of Dorothy Parker's Ashes

It's been 50 years since Dorothy Parker’s death. She died - not from suicide as her poetry would have foreshadowed - but from a heart attack at 76. Though they didn't know one another at all, she left her entire estate to Martin Luther King, Jr. Sadly, he was assassinated a year after Parker's death and the money was passed on to the NAACP, as instructed in Parker's will. If I didn't love her enough for her work, I certainly love her for this mandate. In a sad twist of fate, Parker's ashes ended up sitting in her attorney's file cabinet for 15 years! FIFTEEN YEARS IN A FILE CABINET. I can't help but think that would somehow both amuse and sadden her. It certainly would be fodder for a poem. Maybe something like this:

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