The Ministry of Truth
By Tara Campbell
The Ministry says it’s no joke: today
I broke the law. I was too woke today.
They claim I denigrated our great land.
Its sacred trust is what I broke today.
They feel it would be harmful to allow
my words to reach the common folk today.
They say I poked too roughly at our nation’s
history, fragile as a yolk today.
My only crime was pointing out the flames:
the Constitution’s up in smoke today.
Tara Campbell (www.taracampbell.com) is a writer, teacher, Kimbilio Fellow, and fiction co-editor at Barrelhouse. She teaches flash and speculative fiction, and is the author of two novels, two hybrid collections, and two short story collections. Her sixth book, City of Dancing Gargoyles (SFWP), was a finalist for the 2025 Philip K. Dick Award, and listed in Reactor Magazine’s “Best Books of 2024” and Locus and SFWA’s Recommended Reading.
Photo credit: Thomas Hawk via a Creative Commons license.
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