The Light By Ann Christine Tabaka

The taste of love is bitter-sweet, 

intoxicating like wine. 

An addiction both desired & disdained.

Before day is eaten by night / 

before sun is eaten by moon,

we shall lay our heads upon the pillow of life. 

Death shall not prevail. 

I have been forgotten / tucked away behind 

a cereal box - cabinet door shut. 

Darkness / only darkness.

Time chases moments across a meadow 

shadowed by misguided deeds. 

It carries light in its velvet satchel,

always searching for the sun.

A sun that shall not rise again 

until the truth is sought. 

Beyond the grave there are no lies.

There light waits for me.

Ann Christine Tabaka was nominated 4 times Pushcart Prize in Poetry; nominated for the 2023 Dwarf Stars Award of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association; winner of Spillwords Press 2020 Publication of the Year; selected as a Judge for the Soundwaves Poetry Contest of Northern Ireland 2023. Her bio is featured in the “Who’s Who of Emerging Writers 2020” and “2021,” published by Sweetycat Press. She is the author of 19 poetry books, and 1 short story book. She lives in Delaware, USA. She loves gardening and cooking. Chris lives with her husband and four cats. Her most recent credits are: Sand Hills Literary Magazine, The Phoenix, Eclipse Lit, Streetcake Experimental Writing Magazine, Carolina Muse, Ephemeral Literary Review, The Elevation Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Tangled Locks Journal, Wild Roof Journal, The American Writers Review, Black Moon Magazine, Pacific Review, Pomona Valley Review, West Texas Literary Review.