Feminism
This is a key feature throughout the poems in this collection and can be a nod to Shaughnessey’s own experiences in combating the ideas and values of anti-feminists. In the poem ‘I want the world’, the narrator comments “She still thinks we can choose between ice cream flavors, bless her that she has so many possible flavors in mind.” Although the depiction is of something as simple as ice-cream there is far greater meaning to this than initially thought – the ice cream is just a children’s metaphor for opportunities available to women, and the narrator playfully mocks this notion by following it up with "bless her" to even think such thoughts. Similarly, in 'Are Women People', the narrator uses a documentary style approach to scientifically understand the basis of females and whether they are actually people, with the word "people" being used countless times throughout the poem, thereby rendering it a pointless term.
Apocalypse
This is also a prominent feature in the collection and Shaughnessey integrates it at multiple points in the stanzas. For example, in 'No Traveller Returns', the narrator uses phrases like "unthinkable thoughts" and "blow up the world" perhaps to highlight the consequences on one’s action in destroying the world, literally or figuratively. Indeed, in 'Our Family on the Run', there is a recurring imagery of desperation to take urgent supplies and escape the current world, as though the narrator wants the reader to highlight the urgency of an apocalypse.
