The children look too much like him for me
to ever doubt their shared paternity
(as if I could! I paid attention then
to all my copulations with the men).

But here’s a rub I didn’t contemplate
when I at 22 took on a mate:
When I at 25 had pregnant sex,
I never thought that man would be my ex.

I never dreamed that I would come to feel
so much contempt for him who was my friend,
but disappointment flattened my respect
for him, beneath time’s sneaky wearing heel.
My children’s faces startle and then bend
my natural love, by recollection wrecked.