Overview
This is a topical poem about a mother who is forced to flee her home with her daughter in the middle of the night. It is suggested that she is an immigrant woman perhaps facing deportation. Kay deliberately holds back details so that the situation becomes universal - it could be set anywhere and in any modern time period. It does have particular resonance in our current political climate.
Kay uses the first-person narrative throughout to make it immediate. The reader is thrust into this woman's experience and we feel her fear when she is caught by the authority figures, who are significantly male.
The relationship between mother and daughter is central to this poem. The 'Leila' from the title is the speaker鈥檚 daughter, who despite the danger and her mother's anxiety sleeps until she is awakened by the presence of "the men in plain suits" in the penultimate verse. Her mother must soothe her, although she is very frightened herself.