The meaning of this disappearing act is explained when Notley paints a flower painting of a woman literally disappearing in the scene in which a baby is pulled from between the legs of a woman. In the same way that the system pressured burned women into associating with a ghostly man, the woman in this scene is not only being pressured, but is actually being groomed by a group people to give birth. The people dress her, "'they [help] her'", "put on the clothes..." and finish by placing a wreath of flowers on her head, announcing that she is ready to give birth (Notley 53). The woman is prepared and pulls the baby from between her legs, the crown of flowers disappears, which Alette describes as "the string of flowers 'disappeared'" (Notley 53, according to poetic metaphor transcribers Lakoff and Turner, In). In Janice Kozma's literary use of flower analysis, the inclusion of flower dieback or disintegration generally corresponds to the life cycle of plants (379). Thus, the withering of a flower directly results in the death of a plant which, in this case, acts. as the death of woman's discretion and independence, the main things a girl acquires upon entering into her womanhood. Transitions from submitting to the choices of others to making decisions to having to live according to the choices of others can. be seen in