A New Roof

The man who put the new roof on the house said

he was surprised I had chosen the color black.

He bet with his workers that I would choose a light color,

like so many of the neighbors,

but that was the point.

I wanted to be different,

like a hairless cat is different

from a Maine Coon.

The roof is on and it looks smug.  

Tidy, and precise, and serious,

as a roof should be.

All the neighbors’ roofs are gossiping.

They’re disturbed at the audacity

of the non-conformity.

That’s because they would never look chic in black.

Calvin says, “It’s boring, like you sometimes.”