I’m Not Changing my Name
because it is me
my baggage, foibles, self
because I love the misspellings
because I will be “ambitious”,
“pert” and “forward”.
because my life began at birth
because I am not first a wife
Maggie Mackay, a Scot and recent Manchester Metropolitan University MA Poetry graduate, has work in a range of print and online publications, including Prole, The Interpreter’s House and Ink,Sweat & Tears. This delightfully defiant poem grew out of research on the long standing Scottish legal requirement to record a woman by her birth name, and on grave stones too.
Celebrating Change 