Brier, bramble, gorse and furze,

Nettles, spines and sticky burrs.

Prickle, stickle, thistle, thorn —

Reminders when the curse was born.

Raspberry, blackberry, wag ‘n bietjie here.

Redberry lips approach the bier.

Remove a barb and beast’s a friend.

Pies for pudding, a fitting end.

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Linda is hosting at dVerse today and challenges us to write a Quadrille (poem of exactly 44 words, excluding the title) using the word “bramble.” Come play!

For those of you who may not know, “wag ‘n bietjie” is Afrikaans for “wait a bit” and is one of the names for the Ziziphus mucronata tree (also known as the buffalo thorn), called “wait a bit” because the thorns are known to hook and hold its victims.