roof

instead of chatting squirrels
and the flutter of nesting birds
half awake over coffee i sat
listening to a tap, tap, tap
like a school for shoemakers
and raise my eyes to
look out the window

where, an apple pitch away,
a bunch of young men
with shirts off in the sun
make back and forth up-high shadows
working, replacing the neighbor's roof

now then, here we are
with an event like this
nearly worth half a column
in the thin local newspaper
that comes out every Thursday