but had packed it all in,
the best verb, the right noun,
for a life in the sun.
A woman I knew
kept her skull
on a shelf in a room -
Anon's -
and swore that one day
as she worked at her desk
it cleared its throat
as though it has something
to get off its chest.
But I know best -
how she passed on her pen
like a baton
down through the years,
The poet asserts her own insight into the place of women. She recognises what many prefer to ignore or not to acknowledge about themselves. It is Duffy’s way of paying tribute to those who have subjugated their own ambitions to society’s demands.
Anon