Ann Christine Tabaka was nominated for the 2017 Pushcart Prize in Poetry. She is the winner of Spillwords Press 2020 Publication of the Year, her bio is featured in the “Who’s Who of Emerging Writers 2020 and 2021,” published by Sweetycat Press. She is the author of 14 poetry books. lives in Delaware, USA. She loves gardening and cooking.  Chris lives with her husband and four cats. Her most recent credits are: Sparks of Calliope; The Closed Eye Open, Poetic Sun, Tangled Locks Journal, Wild Roof Journal, The American Writers Review, The Scribe Magazine, The Phoenix, Burningword Literary Journal, Muddy River Poetry Review, The Silver Blade, Pomona Valley Review, West Texas Literary Review, The Hungry Chimera, Sheila-Na-Gig, Fourth & Sycamore.*(a complete list of publications is available upon request)

He Walked Away

He walked away
turning back the sky,
night folding in around him.

My name dripped from his lips.
We came undone.

Rivers ceased to flow,	
dried up along crumbling banks.

depths of loneliness
reaching up to pull us in.

Once we held each other so close,
that we melted 
in the warmth of a million suns.

Eternity shatters,
raining down on an icy past.

He did not look back.
Night swallowed him whole. 

Our Paradise Found

At Swan Quarter
we take the ferry,
crossing to our paradise.
A three-hour ride whetting excitement. 
A large moon hangs low
in the early morning sky.
The cold breath of night still 
lingering in the mist above 
Pamlico sound.
Subtle glow of daybreak,  
starts to peek through clouds.
Shadows play tag with the rising sun.
Diamonds dance on rhythmic waves. 
A shiver of joy fills me 
as I watch the shore grow nearer.
Sea gulls crying overhead,
welcoming us home – Ocracoke Island. 

Forbidden Dance

Setting Sun dances his twilight 
	upon ocean’s glass face,
descending behind crimson waves. 
He serenades the ebon expanse.

Luna reaches out to touch 
his fading warmth. Starlight crowns 
	her alabaster countenance. 
Desire embodies who she is. 

They live for the chase, 
a passion that can never be sated.
He is fire, 
	She is ice,
forever forbidden to join.

We danced the dance 
	that would not end.
Holding hands across the sky,
waltzing towards the dawn.

We were day and night,
	a world apart.
In this place where what we think
	becomes reality, 
I dreamed you into existence.