Mr. Ehrmann, we desire the same conditions.
But
I cannot seem to avoid myself, vexing as I can be.
I work to be calm and kind.
Yet sometimes a cyclone ravages my cranium.
I was quiet and meek once.
It nearly killed me.
No, not figuratively.
These descriptors you used,
The things I hate most about myself at times,
The cardinal crimes women are told never to commit,
Sometimes they are survival.
Sometimes they’re the skills needed
to escape suffocation
by a drunk person
lethally wielding
a soft, silent pillow.