Insecure

How can a comment, made innocuously

Bring out an insecurity in me?

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I am fairly accomplished, and confident

In my abilities, but I have shortcomings evident

That I don’t pay attention to most days

But sometimes, in surreptitious ways

My confidence ends up being undermined

As random comments pierce my psyche to remind

Me of something that I lack, and in that instant

My insecurity takes center-stage, becomes dominant

All of a sudden feelings of inadequacy flood me

I want to obliterate that flaw, I want to be

A different person with that quality I lack

Without it, I wouldn’t get my confidence back

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Eventually that acute feeling of insecurity fades away

Sometimes I make a change, sometimes things stay

The same as before, but my confidence I regain

Until it is shaken by a comment again

All the disapproving remarks based on social norms

Reside deep in my psyche, to take a tangible form

When someone makes a remark in a similar vein

All my confidence-building measures seem in vain…