Triumph

by Jenny Morelli

Image credit: Julia Caesar on Unsplash

What powerful weapons

words can be. When used just right,

they can topple the grandest

and most ignorant leaders.

For example, the word trump 

derived from triumph

way back in the sixteenth century

and it meant a playing card that ranks

above all others, a tarot card

in a special suit, a valuable resource

to gain an advantage,

a helpful person,

a trumpet blast, but now,

I’d bet $850 the word trump

has a bunch of new, user-contributed

definitions, each one a weapon

to hurl toward the left

or the right,

depending on the wordslut

wielding those words.

I could go on and on,

but on second thought,

I’d rather end my rant and rave

with kinder words for us women

word warriors to keep in mind,

words like empowerment and pen

and paper and kumbaya and love,

love, LOVE!

and rise above

and soldier on

and we’ll survive this mess

because that’s what we do,

and we’ll do it with words,

our most powerful weapon,

to we’ll trump and we’ll trumpet

and eventually, ultimately, in the end,

we will triumph.

***

Jenny Morelli

Jenny Morelli is a high school English teacher who lives in New Jersey with her husband and cat. She is often either inspired by her students or else they're triggering memories in her of when she was young and struggling with her self-confidence. She has been published in a number of literary magazines, including Spare Parts for a novel excerpt, Spillwords for several themed poems, and Bottlecap Press for her own chapbook This is Not a Drill.