Bearla: Meehan - The Exact Moment I Became a Poet

Attend to your books girls, or mark my words, you’ll end up in the sewing factory.

Working in the sewing factory is looked down upon and is seen as a threat by the teacher.

Those words ‘end up’ robbed the labour of its dignity.

While Meehan doesn’t disagree with the sentiment, she resents the teacher’s snobbery of the people who work in the sewing factory and do real work.

Allowing also that the teacher was right.

Meehan acknowledges the importance of education while also criticising her teacher.

I saw them…trussed like chickens on a conveyor belt.

Meehan recognises the reality and cruelty of factory work and likens the workers to a gruesome image. 

Getting sewn up the way my granny sewed the sage and onion stuffing into the birds.

Grotesque visual imagery.

Words could pluck you, leave you naked, your lovely shiny feathers all gone.

Metaphor for the importance of words and what they can do.