"B" (If I Should Have a Daughter)

The poem’s opening line establishes the entire premise for the remainder of the poem, letting the reader know the speaker’s intention to detail, how she would treat her hypothetical daughter, and the advice she would give her. In lines 1-4, the narrator states that she will have her daughter call her “Point B” (Line 1), as a means of always being able to locate her. The language used here references points connecting a straight line (Point A and Point B). It is inferred that the daughter will be Point A, which will have a direct link with Point B (the mother), implying their closeness as well as a sense of direction or guidance.

In lines 5-8, the narrator says she will paint the solar systems on the back of her daughter’s hands so that she will know the whole universe before being able to say, “Oh, I know that like the back of my hand” (Line 5). These lines take figurative language—specifically the idiom “like the back of my hand”—and approach it using the literal language of painting images on the girl’s hands. In this way, the idiom is turned on its head, and the daughter will learn the universe by literally learning what is on the back of her hands.