When you feel pale in the comparison:

I have a lot of friends that are excellent writers.
When I say this, I do not do so unscrupulously.
They have taken all the colors you can separate from the darkness and flung them into perspective, like prisms of literary prowess.
The leave their hearts burning through with the expulsion of such light.
They have made and unmade and made me again with their eloquence, radiance, substance.
They are alchemists of grief, spinning their guts into gold.
They let others into their lifeblood: “Welcome friend, are you thirsty?”
We all are refreshed in their pools of candor.

So when I endeavor to pen something honest, I feel pale.
Because, how do I? Next to all these deeply hued beauties?
A daisy among the peonies, the hyacinths, the dahlias.
”Who is sweetest to the honeybee?” - I ask the wrong question.
Because, I have a lot of friends who are excellent writers.
And we read each other’s stories like we read each other’s eyes,
It is how we share life.

So if you feel pale right now,
Maybe you’re asking the wrong question.