The Friday Poem: oh, the places I won’t go!, by Leah Dodd
Photo: Getty Images; additional design by Tina Tiller
A new poem by 2021 Biggs Family Poetry Prize winner Leah Dodd.
oh, the places I won’t go!
doctor, I have no brains in my head nor feet in my shoes
my shoes are full of coastal sand and my head
is full of green Goosebumps slime
doctor, I will not be going overseas for an OE
I will not be eating peaches in Portugal
or spoons of Turkish honey
doctor, I am afraid of the waiting place
I want the bright places, the boom
bands, even… the poogle-horns
doctor, are you a real doctor?
doctor, I have googled it
and learned that in fact
you were not
but your overbearing father
wanted you to be
doctor, I am in a slump
have you ever been in a slump?
from what I just learned about your father I think yes
doctor, my belly is full of olives and mushrooms
my fingers are coated in cheap
grease and shame
change is brewing
like a garden potion full of
children’s palm blood and piss
doctor, I was kissed
on moss-dark rocks by a tide pool
at dusk and I don’t even care
you died six years before I was born
but doctor, I am so stuck
can you help me?
The Friday Poem is edited by Chris Tse. Submissions are currently closed and will open again soon.
Leah Dodd
Leah lives in Pōneke and doesn’t really go anywhere. Recent poems of hers can be found in Starling, Stasis, Mayhem, Sweet Mammalian, and other places. In 2021 she won the Biggs Family Poetry Prize.
