It’s not the house that’s haunted, it’s the person.

Spirits that linger within disguise

A phantom of the ghostly night

Was all but forgotten amongst the wise

With grimly tales that take delight

By orders issued and advised

By a hand that’s said to now ghostwrite:

Lift your finger, shake your nose
Look up, look down and touch your toes
A stick, a stone, a broken bone
For with these things, they shall leave you alone.

Shake and move, I said three times
Don’t forget these rhyming lines
Smack your forehead, shake your hand
And now I hope you understand.

To fill the glass and empty vase
With leaves that fall and wind to chase
Seal it with a lick or two
Yes, I do believe that will do!

A finger for touch and to feel
The nose to smell and sense appeal
A stick to balance and stone to throw
A broken bone— to overthrow.

Three times motion that does shake
With rhyming lines, known to make
Hand to forehead— as we now revealed
The words which prior rhymes concealed.

Transform with motion and make it heavy
From things that fall and chase, no longer empty
Seal to hold and contain it too
For your own saliva, this water shall do.

Katrenia G. Busch is a published poet, author and journalist. She has appeared in Westward Quarterly, Police Writers , Trouvaille Review among others.