Safeguards

I learned: I am important.

I am the only importance.

I must protect myself.

So I took up self-defence lessons,
locked up my belongings with bigger and stronger locks,
avoided people who derided me,
read nothing that bothered my conscience.

This way I assured myself I would feel safe.

But behind my locked door, I looked in the hall mirror
and I saw my face, anxious.

Apotheosis