The Portrait
The portrait hung in my house for years.
I never had cause to give it any fear.
It was of a beautiful woman with red hair.
I don’t know who she was or how it got there.
It was hanging there when I bought the house.
I left it there because I liked her blouse.
All was fine till my girlfriend moved in.
Strange things have happened since then.
The portrait started to change, it seemed.
She looked angry instead of serene.
My girlfriend tripped on the stairs.
Someone pushed her, she swears.
She has heard a whisper there.
It would tell her to beware.
She would get a cold chill up her spine.
When she looked at the portrait , every time.
Other bizarre incidents occurred.
Always with the single word. “Beware!!”
She was convinced the portrait did it.
She thinks it is of a witch.
I tried to trace the history of the picture.
I kept running into one hitch here.
The previous owner had burned the painting.
I heard this and felt like fainting.
He said it was there when he bought the house.
Incidents happened, so he took it out.
He burned it and things quieted down.
The house felt creepy, so he moved out of town.
Built in the 1600’s, the house is old.
Rumors say a witch lived there, I was told.
They say her portrait hung in the den.
This was a bad fix I was in.
I could burn it, but, I might have to move.
Was it jealous of my girlfriend? How crude.
I threatened to drown it in holy water.
All the weirdness stopped without a bother.
We are still there, but always weary.
Twice we saw the portrait teary.
——————————–R. W. Johnson—–(2017)