Facts or Fibs?

Henry Ford showed spunk
as he said history is bunk.
I differ from his definition
and opt for this description:
 
history is like a package
that is tricky to manage,
containing fragile ware
to be handled with care.
 
Some of its content are junk
that one has to debunk,
while others consist of fibs
that will tickle one’s ribs.
 
Did George Washington
in his stately mansion
cut down a cherry tree?
You could have fooled me.
 
And no one with brains
will believe that the trains
ran just like a dream
during the fascist regime.
 
And what about the fate
of Catherine the Great?
It’s only a myth of course
that she died under a horse.
 
Many schoolboys learned
that while Rome burned
Nero played the fiddle
but it’s only a taradiddle.
 
We’re told Morton Stanley,
an explorer who was manly,
found Dr. David Livingstone
in poor health and alone.
 
Did he say, as we assume,
“Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”
Or did he ask, venting his spleen,
“Where the hell have you been?”
 
 
© Luigi Pagano 2019