How to pronounce Dagenham
For Jodie Chesney
First relax ur froat, ur maaf, ur vibe
Not much to do about not much to do so ya chat shit:
Wiv ya white shirt unbuttoned over West Ham strip
Clanging pawnshop platinum on a baby blackbird’s chest.
Narmy Army swells over Heathway, trailing broken Dagz like
‘U wot mate?’ Fist tatts, clapbacks, my brother’s best mate got…
that C2C tracks constant clanging
in her veins, she got a lulled goodbye to Percy, to the pawnshop
goodbye to Jo: sun glows platinum
through her, straight to the grass on
which she sits. not much to do about not much to do, a
purple bracelet twirls, lip corners curl when he calls her ‘baby’
soft as sweet tarmac, watching blackbirds
crows? crows watch back. breath rises, settles, in her chest
Which flowers in Foxglove, which blossoms in Columbine:
She gavvers em. Wood chips skitter from the playgrand to soften the earf on which she
sits.
Not much to do about
Not much to do, a
Lalah-Simone Springer is a poet and speculative fiction writer from Dagenham. (she/they). Lalah was long-listed for the Merky New Writers Prize in 2021. Lalah has been published in Onyx Magazine, Marble Poetry Magazine, on the ANTHEMS podcast and more.