After the Fact Checking

The poem below just seemed to flow out of my head and onto the page while I watched a fact-checking segment on the news a few weeks ago. I've been sitting on it for a while, but given the significance of this weeks July 4th holiday, I thought it the appropriate occasion to put it out there, so to speak.

It's full of questions that I've pondered over and over these past several months as I watch our country (and I mean the collective "our" - as in "all Americans, citizens and non-citizens alike" - not the selective "our" that the party currently in power keeps trying to commandeer, along with our flag) being changed dramatically and strategically, our constitution bent to the will of a would-be dictator POTUS and his minions of hate, all the while hoping that the federal courts and SCOTUS continue to dole out defeats to his seemingly never-ending stream of executive orders meant to tear down, not build up, the foundation upon which we've rested for the last 249 years.

And I know - hope is not a strategy. We all have to do what we can to survive all the things coming our way from this administration. I guess that's why I'm sharing this now.

I seldom post political thoughts or materials, other than the occasional social media refutation of some conspiratorial, inflammatory, or otherwise false meme or narrative - and we all know how much good that does.

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox for now and let the words of the poem speak for themselves. I hope you enjoy, "After the Fact Checking".

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After the Fact Checking

Once truths are disclosed

And liars exposed,

What happens next?

(I’m perplexed)

***

After the fact checking

And lie detecting,

What to expect?

(What the heck?)

***

Some voters - nonplussed

At others’ disgust -

Elect the orange king.

(Oh, boy, here comes the avenging)

***

The media, discredited,

Refused to be edited

By those pushing “alternative facts”.

(“Fake news” gets the axe)

***

Higher Ed disrespected

By half those elected

Who bullied them into submission.

(Fools gave them permission)

***

Immigrants expelled,

“Due process!”, we yelled,

And loudly to any who’d hear us.

(They don’t fear us)

***

“Let freedom ring”

Was a pretty good thing

While it lasted, though.

(Or at least I believed so)

***

But then the law buckled

While the orange king chuckled,

“I’ll give these the old heave-ho.”

(Boy, could we use a hero)

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Copyright June 2025, Kevin Gilmore. All rights reserved.