Intimidation comes in many forms
and you would think that the
plethora of PhD’s in my immediate area
would do the trick
but they are human, so much less frightening
than office supplies.

The intimidation by the inanimate is far worse
specifically the new notebook on my desk
still shrink-wrapped from its journey across the seas.
the cardboard across the front bragging
about 100 GSM paper
and vegan softcover

How can I write the drivel I write
in such a book?
my words are barely worth
the ten-for-a-dollar spirals
that Walmart sells each August.
With a choice of wide ruled
or college ruled
I feel pretentious even getting the college ruled-
who am I to put as many words as possible on a page?

Who am I
to think that my words deserve to live
in a twenty-dollar notebook?
It will sit on my desk for, I don’t know,
a week? a month?
and then it will go in the closet, with the other
twenty-dollar notebooks
My shrine of shame
and I will pull out the ten-cent spiral
with the metal stretching out the top
and begin the next masterpiece.