A Bristol poet has left people with "shivers" after her powerful literary takedown of Edward Colston.
Vanessa Kisuule shared a video on Twitter of her poem Hollow, which was inspired by the toppling of the slave trader's statue in Bristol on Sunday.
The performer is the designated Bristol City Poet for 2018-20, and said she had "never been prouder" to hold that title following the events at the Black Lives Matter protest.
The video has been watched more than half a million times since it was posted late on Monday afternoon, and was accompanied by the message: "Rust in shame, Eddie."
She spoke of the "righteous wrench of two ropes" as Colston was hauled to the ground, and how she had walked past his plinth countless times before that day.
"Take your twisted glory and feed it to the tadpoles", she said in one particularly moving line.
Thousands of people responded after watching, with several describing the poem as "breathtaking" and others saying it gave them shivers.
Sir Philip Pullman, author of the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials, simply responded: "This is really good."
Malorie Blackman, who wrote the Noughts & Crosses books, said: "Love it. Listened to it 3x in a row."
After an influx of queries from teachers asking if they could share the poem in their classrooms, Ms Kisuule said she hoped it would be a useful teaching tool.
Responding to the feedback today (Tuesday), she tweeted: "Thanks so much for the lush response to the poem, everyone!
"I tried my best to make something accessible that was still a decent poem, so to get positive feedback from writers who I admire hugely as well as ppl who've not engaged much with poetry is truly the sweet spot."
She had previously urged people not to reduce the removal of Colston to a "random act of anarchy", noting that people in Bristol have been campaigning for its removal for decades.
In 2018, Ms Kisuule told the Bristol Post how she hoped her creative work would "start important conversations and bolster pride in being a citizen of Bristol".
The bronze statue of Colston was brought down before being rolled to the harbour and dumped in the water, and police have launched an investigation into criminal damage.
Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees has said it will eventually be retrieved and most likely taken to a museum.
