Laura Grace Dame

Bloated with Insecurity

Laura Grace Dame

I feel like a refugee at this fireworks display My dinosaur skin stretched across my bones I’m a klutz Limbs always mottled with the proof And I sit cross-legged On the itchy grass Watching the neon sparks and smoke Draw on the backdrop of the sky And I think About how everyone else has everything figured out Everyone else is so beautifully put together I’m the only confused one I’m the only ugly one I’m the only one who isn’t confident in who they are My brain picks up lie after lie after lie And I devour them like they are the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted

I’ve been enjoying this same diet For many years now I don’t know when I began the sickly consumption But I’m becoming fat on this self-deprecating diet I’m becoming skinny on this self-punishing routine

It’s all such a nasty brain game As I try to figure out who I am It’s a cycle without an end As I try to get things straight

108

Get my ducks in a row

But that’s hard to do When you can’t figure out which ducks are your own

109