Thoughts following from Carol Ann Duffy’s “The World’s Wife” where she muses on the experience of wives of several famous men, true and mythical, such as Mrs Midas.
I have heard about a book
Who Cooked Adam Smith’s dinner?
wondering about the experience of someone
we have never heard mentioned.
He is so well known, the father of economics.
Adam Smith’s statue stands tall in High Street
There is no statue anywhere of a Mrs. Smith.
Phone book, church and other records, are no help.
Who would know of one Mrs. smith
among so many? She becomes anonymous.
If I was Mrs. Smith, the first thing I would do
is find a good solicitor,
the rather odd name given to lawyers in Scotland.
And I would ask this woman, solicitor of the legal kind,
to arrange to change my name.
Ha, you thought I would be seeking divorce.
No way. His books sell and are reprinted.
They make money. He writes about money
and says that those who make dinner
do so from their own interest*.
So I will change my name.
Now, Brown, Jones, Campbell, McDonald?
Ach no. I am in Edinburgh.
I will see my new name every time I walk
up the hill from his statue.
I will be Mrs. Burke.**
*This is a shortened version, with poetic licence. The full quote is here: It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.
** Burke and his accomplice Hare are historical figures in Edinburgh from the same era as Adam Smith. See that story here. A variety of tourist trails offer information about their murderous careers.
Poetry of Moods and Moments 