by Claire Stewart-Hall
Racism is like bramble
its roots run deep. It climbs high
above
so
you can’t trace the root.
Racism is thorny
branches across plants
develops
a
root system.
It feeds,
parasite,
routes past, grows
attached.
Cut it out, cut it down,
it is held
aloft
by the branches it rests on.
Embedded
tangled
twisted and thickened
at root.
You cut one piece loose
it continues to grow
thorns cutting your wrists.
Thorned and persistent,
coerces around
bramble
fractures
and splits
across and between
long, thin, spikey,
thick and
it intersects.
Bramble rests
high above
roots
run
deep.
