You have to love Britain’s new poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy.  Not only is she the first woman ever to hold the office, but she also:  is a mom who happens to be openly gay; plans to donate her annual stipend (roughly $8500 a year) to fund an annual poetry prize; made it clear she intends to collect all 600 bottles of sherry that comes with the position and writes poems of everyday life that are easily read and understood.

The following poem is from The World’s Wife, a collection of poems about women in history and mythology telling their side of the story.

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Mrs Rip Van Winkle

I sank like a stone
into the still, deep waters of late middle age,
aching from head to foot.
I took up food
and gave up exercise.
It did me good.
And while he slept
I found some hobbies for myself.
Painting. Seeing the sights I’d always dreamed about:
The Leaning Tower.
The Pyramids. The Taj Mahal.
I made a little watercolour of them all.
But what was best,
what hands-down beat the rest,
was saying a none-too-fond farewell to sex.
Until the day
I came home with this pastel of Niagara
and he was sitting up in bed rattling Viagra.