Eavan Boland - It's a Woman's World lyrics

Our way of life has hardly changed since a wheel first whetted a knife. Maybe flame burns more greedily and wheels are steadier, but we're the same: we milestone our lives with oversights, living by the lights of the loaf left by the cash register, the washing powder paid for and wrapped, the wash left wet: like most historic peoples we are defined by what we forget and what we never will be: star-gazers, fire-eaters. It's our alibi for all time: as far as history goes we were never on the scene of the crime. When the king's head gored its basket, grim harvest, we were gristing bread or getting the recipe for a good soup. It's still the same: our windows moth our children to the flame of hearth not history. And still no page scores the low music of our outrage. Appearances rea**ure: that woman there, craned to the starry mystery, is merely getting a breath of evening air. While this one here, her mouth a burning plume - she's no fire-eater, just my frosty neighbour coming home.