Confidence

It is both the predator and the prey,

Ever present in one, absent in the other.

The predators are those who are formed of its spirit,

To feel its power running through their veins.

The prey are born without,

Vulnerable, with less opportunities,

Fully at the mercy of those who are made of it.

They can be attacked, ripped to shreds in a way their hunter never has to worry about.

They can be picked apart, destroyed in a way that seems so innocuous and benign to anyone that is not them.

With words.

Words are the most powerful weapon in the world.

Very few are immune to their callousness.

Yet those that are hold their heads high,

Insecurities and anxieties rebounding off their bare skin because they don’t need any armour, any protection, any security.

They are made of it; a surplus of confidence emanating from them,

Exuding a trail of it wherever they go;

A wake of power behind.

Those who lack it stare in awe, full of envy.

As confidence is the main entity of success, those who have it try to share with others, because they have more than enough. They want to help others thrive like them; to protect the prey from each other, and more harmful predators with less kind hearts.

Yet they overlook the most important feature of confidence.

It cannot be given as a gift.

It cannot be shared, or transferred.

Its traits can be taught, but this contradicts confidence.

It is a being that lurks on the inside,

An invisible force,

An entity with a power to be reckoned with.

Confidence deceives with ease,

It is artful and stealthy.

The predators who act like they have it most are usually prey who have it least.

The prey strive for it

Crave it

To learn it.

Attempting to remove it from each other as easily as it can be taken from themselves.

Armouring up with what small, stolen scraps they can find,

Tiny pieces on the ground left glinting in the sun from compliments or good grades or arguments won.

We need both the predator and the prey to exist. We cannot have a world with just one.

We carry on with life, as confidence skulks in the background,

Deep inside the souls of those who need it least, yet have it most.