Putting Dalston On The Map Poem by C Richard Miles

Putting Dalston on the map, the poster says
Though actually, factually, It’s already there
Though sometimes, I guess,
More or less for wrong reasons,
But that’s without reasoning
About strong seasoning and spices
At down-town, knock-down prices
That surprise us as we buy
As Ridley Road Market, giddily
Marks Dalston really clearly on the map.
For nearly all humanity, inanity, totality
Is congregating, populating,
Swelling, dwelling, excelling
In dreary, beery smelling bleary Dalston:
Energizing, surprising, Enterprising,
Looking at books in Centerprise
Cafes cooking, truckers trucking to traders
Supplying, buying, selling
As they splash flash cash
At kitsch trash, pass fast that mish-mash,
In mad bad crash dash.
As pan-chromatic, aromatic,
Scents assault senses
Stimulating, agitating
Once-staid solemnity, class enmity
Into a fizzing, whizzing, buzzing city.
Multicultural society, not sobriety
In entirety splashing, flashing, dashing
Hues of blues, bright whites
Mellow yellows, keen greens
Steal the scene
Rainbow nation waiting in anticipation
For the goods on sale near Kingsland Station.
Calypso of mango, yam and sweet potato’ll
Mix in with fixes of lamb and bagel
Red snapper, salt fish and ackee
Mingle with a smack of wacky baccy
And, as a sop for bland,
Okra, Ladies fingers’ hands
Which they toil to boil interminably
Incredibly into something edible.
Unpalatable, fat and all
Is that that gets my goat –
Goat – Curried goat, jerk goat.
And that fatty goat patty
I’d rather eat rat or cat
Than goat - don’t gloat
Those tacky strings of fat
As it sticks in the throat
And things that float
In Goat stew, they say is good for you
But then I’m distracted, attracted
To the fuller colours of silks and organzas
Extravaganzas in stanzas of poplin
And cotton’s not forgotten
As you carry on walking,
Muslims talking muslin and satin
Lace antimacassars, matting,
Fitting in with the stalls and calls
Of vendors, lenders, menders
In the hustle, bustle, fuss all round.
That sound found loud and proud in town.
Putting Dalston on the map they say,
Or do they mean to say:
Hey! today, the map’s on Dalston?
The map’s unwrapped, zapped
And slapped on Dalston
The world’s unfurled, whirled
And hurled at Dalston
The globe’s enrobed, cloned
And homed in Dalton
You’ll find mankind enshrined,
Entwined and fine in Dalston.