Pretense
I put the booklet
Containing my poems
On my bookshelf
Not with the books about writing
But with the poetry anthologies
Of my university days
How dare I
Sit amongst the likes of
Wordsworth and Pope
Coleridge and Poe
The brazenness
Of sharing a shelf with
Shakespeare and Cummings
Atwood and Cohen
It was an act
Of rebellion
Of defiance
Of self-affirmation