This is one of a series of limericks Asimov wrote about various poisons in 1984. Like the others, it appeared in the “Detectiverse” feature of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (the July 1984 issue, in this case). It has all the virtues and vices of Asimov’s limericks generally: it’s clever but not really rib-tickling. At least this one is relatively easy to scan.