although I had plenty of time
I was loath to wash my hair,
completely lured in by her clever but deceiving status
(too bad for Haydn's "The Creation" Oratorio
I was to perform the next day)

not even the rusty mirror
I had previously thought of
couldn't be held accountable
for the witty irony pervading
the arrangement of those 4 words

because, although the language
by which she had been inflicting
the outside suffering upon herself
was completely hers,

she had not fallen victim
under her own will.