Without the tools nor the interest,
he asked his next door neighbor,
who had all the tools and more
than enough interest having been

in the home construction business
for years, if the neighbor would
consider replacing some rotting
strips of wood framing the garage

door before some college kids
came to paint the house, another
job for which he had neither
appropriate tools nor inclination.

The neighbor said yes and the
day came for the work to begin.
This put the man in a quandary.
He could go out and make small

talk with the neighbor as the
neighbor pulled at rotting wood
strips, something the neighbor
probably wouldn’t appreciate

given that it would take time
and concentration away from the
task at hand or he could stay in
the house and feel somewhat

awkward that someone else was
doing a man’s task outdoors on
his house while he apparently
wasn’t around or was crouching

inside. So he decided to do
the next most manly thing he
could think to do. He would
sit at his desk and nimbly

exercise his fingers showing
off to himself his significant
typing dexterity as he com-
posed a poem. When finished

he wouldn’t read the poem
to the neighbor but would
offer him a beer, another sort
of manly thing men do.