The Sound of One Shoe Dropping

What if the one-legged tenant in the upstairs apartment

 drops his boot with a thump and there you are staring

 at the ceiling, waiting, because  you never bothered to learn

 who lives above, below, or about any neighbor, for that matter,

 and you are waiting for something that’s not going to happen, 

and you are missing out on meeting a really good person,

 but no, not you, with your negative expectation

and lurid imagination, you insist on reading the worst  

 in the paint’s imperfections, in the shadows and cracks, 

and you persist in believing doom follows gloom

​ as night follows day and there you are waiting...