Girl In the Painting

(A BIT OF BACKGROUND: The poem's persona is viewing a well-loved manga painting of a stately but abandoned old home, featuring an ethereal young girl who looks sad, and a number of half-hidden specters. This sonnet seeks to express the persona's longing for the painting to become a living, moving scene that can be influenced.) Milady May, if I could make you real I'd cast a dreamer's spell on this tableau Of light and magic, make the people know The range of things a girl like you would feel. We'd make the people wonder why the tears Silent-shed beneath the blossom tree. We'd have them scanning every inch to see What trials have made you older than your years. They'd raptly seek for evidence and crave Some promise of what is and isn't true, Some hope of future happiness for you, Some hint why you're at once both sad and brave. These ghosts and beasts, the show they'll try to steal. We'll hint at clues, for now, we must conceal.