Tell me the ******* truth
you say,
but I'll tell you that

I am a writer.
what *I do is write.
By default,
half the things that I do speak aloud
are romanticized
exaggerated
or maybe entirely false.

I am a writer
my memory is not history
I am no historian,
I can promise you that.
My memory is poetry.
Poetry is beautiful,
cutting, shocking, striking,
and sometimes
history just
isn't.

I am a writer
I say,
and that is the ******* truth.