Foreboding

There's no feeling
like that of waiting
for the other shoe
to drop

that sense of helplessness-
the unexpected knock
the guilt,
perhaps unwarranted,
when someone asks to talk
impending doom
the countdown clock

a meeting with an agenda
unsaid, unset, unsought

it could be something pleasant
or something small-
something inconsequential

but then again
it could be a death
a firing
an eviction

it is this protracted possibility
that makes it so unpleasant

what a gift imagination is
but also
what an albatross