Poems to get us through: 'Hello mum!' from a loo high above London

In this week’s poetry choice by Carol Ann Duffy, a daughter uses a bathroom light to communicate with her mother 50 floors below and half a city away

London-based Ella Duffy’s first pamphlet, New Hunger, is published this month by Smith/Doorstop Books – indefatigable ushers-in of verse debuts. The London described in the poem is one we can currently only yearn for, but the sorrow of distance seems to speak to us now, in our separated families, as we Skype and FaceTime through our isolations. As the mother referred to here, this poem has a special poignancy for me.