A Guide To Disappearing

"Don't talk so loud, do you ever shut up?"

I make myself small, and quiet, at your demand

Simpler to vanish from your awareness

As you make yourself loud and big

Perhaps there is room for us both, but in your

Perception, there can only be one voice,

Even if room exists, you will claim it all

As if any other person existing, diminishes you

Retreating, I disappear, until you need me again.

I want to be heard when I am not useful

Not only existing when it is convenient

Gone, until my service is missed.

Once, I was in a relationship with someone who viewed everything as a competition. Any success of mine was bragging, we could only do what I wanted if they also wanted to, why didn't I ever let them have the spotlight?

When I saw this challenge, the first thing I thoght of was the thousand and one ways that women are expected to make themselves smaller to prop up the mediocrity of their partners.

So, that's the Acrostic poem I wrote.