He said / She said

More than once I fended off lies, hearing

I carried babies of married men or that

I’d married one or two of them—

no man ever had a name attached

to the rumor. Funny at first, given my

lack of interest in any man, much else

another woman’s claim. Funnier, still:

the gossip traced back to my father’s wife,

the woman who chased him, a married man.

Funniest of all: he said she said what

she’d heard came from my mother’s mouth,

the woman he’d been lying to for years.