Dear upstairs neighbours,
can you not see,
that wearing your shoes
and being loud as can be
is annoying, and worsened
when we’re all stuck indoors?
If there wasn’t this distance
I would even the scores:
I would burn all the popcorn,
so the smell wafts to you,
or play loudly, old country
as a noisy “screw you too!”
or perhaps if I scream
at the top of my lungs
or cough on your doorknob
and get obnoxiously drunk…
All I ask, Dutch neighbours,
On the floor just above,
is that you take off your shoes
inside your darn house.
Sincerely,
Your socially-isolated neighbour on the floor below.