Hearsay

Verbal vineyards make the mind a mailbox for rumors

as they inspire assumptions as cancerous as tumors,

to define by speculation what lies beneath every mask

becoming a passion and pastime of gossip’s vain task.

 

One factual match is light to ignite a spurious flame,

which can move so fast and spread unproven blame,

until it takes something small and makes it a mountain

ever flowing with defaming slurs like a fountain.

 

By the time the truth is milled and muddled in the brain

what comes from the lips is an imaged so filled with disdain,

it sticks to the memory as a most vividly recalled mental stain

even if the details are like a mist and utterly other than plain.

 

Still despite the despise we might have for the music of lies

just can’t resist the lure of a bite from curiosity’s lascivious pies,

taste that creamy middle of misinformation’s murky filling

when it transforms the dull or bland into truly lurid and thrilling.

 

For some it is a preoccupation they treat as form of play

when they measure life’s joy in some juicy scandalous way,

make assassinating characters a hobby with such alluring sway

no matter if they map people’s persona so wrong by their hearsay.