The title points to March 415, and the poem addresses Hypatia, the philosopher of Alexandria, whom the speaker treats as a woman punished for thinking. The opening lines celebrate how far society has supposedly come, since no one is stoned or burned now. But the speaker quickly undercuts that claim. Her muddled counting of years, from a hundred down to two, suggests the distance is smaller than it looks, and that time changes little.
The central image is a restaurant menu where "slut-shaming" is the daily special, cheap and always available. That turns cruelty into something routine and casual. The speaker sounds bitter and weary, mixing dark humor with grief. Shame becomes something women carry around like a bag, stale and unwanted.
The ending turns tender and urgent. The speaker tells Hypatia to hide what she knows, because the truth frightens people, then insists that their lies are not worth her. The mood is angry, sad, and quietly protective.