Joy Martin

Four-Letter Words


Travel across race and place to advance these:
economic, racial, and social justice.
Pick up placards, wave them high, and shout out truth.

What’s needed is something our senses can feel.
Though intangible and indescribable
hearts full of it can tell when it’s faked or real.

In soil prepared and tended, seeds planted grow.
When they’re nurtured, flowers open to beauty.
For fruits of our labor to be reaped, we must

cultivate one four-letter word, not that other!
Life will taste better once hate is weeded out.


Copyright 2022 by Joy Martin

Bio:

Southern-born, Joy makes her home in New England’s Boston area, with memberships in the Newton Poetry Group and the Poetry Society of Virginia. Her poems explore the many facets of life, including her and broader humanity’s place and challenges within it.

30 for 30 is sponsored by Potomac Review

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One Response to Joy Martin

  1. This is nicely done! It’s hard to sound like poetry while weaving in the language of political discourse, and you manage the trick. While navigating the form!

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