An unpleasant whiff,
settles down, infecting fertile minds,

reeking of prejudice, propped-up in gaudy ostentation.

The odour slips through barricades, absorbed through oblivious pores.

I resist, I tell myself,

I dispel such rotten thoughts,

yet the plague,
of intolerance,
and of hate,

and of racism and of prejudice,

waits,
biding its time.

It waits,
patient and calculating,

knowing it has time on its side.

And with our complicit silence,

the hate,
the intolerance,
prejudice,

the racism,

is emboldened,

no longer seeking,
hidden corners of the mind,

to embed itself,

and hide

…