ANN CHRISTINE TABAKA

ANN

CHRISTINE TABAKA

October Dying

Green to brown to dust.

Iron to rust.

Summer songs to dirge.

Colors all purge.

Leaves fall, bondage free,

whirling dervishes in flight.

Cool embrace of autumn’s kiss,

an omen not to be spurned.

Sun blindingly low in sky,

as evening invades.

Birds on wing abandon youth,

migration beckons forth.

Muted shadows walk past

the dying of another year.

Ominous winter wind shuts

its door to the ghosts of summer.

Procession

June, July, August,

summer here and gone.

September, October, November,

on the cusp of winter.

Cold December rain

falls from a slate sky.

Touched by the chill of winter,

mockingbird cries out

its shrill refrain.

A deep trance overcomes

a sleepy world entombed

in luminous glass.

January, February,

await return of warmth.

Cycles of repentance

speed past the epoch of creation.

March, April, May

see beyond the wish,

to bring us home again.

Shadowed Years

I can no longer say

“when I grow old.”

I am here.

I have reached the

point of life where

penumbras close in,

where night follows day

leaving evening behind.

Looking in the mirror,

a stranger stares back

at me with vacant eyes

and pewter hair.

Once stylish clothes

now hang limp and twisted,

on a body of the same -

limp and twisted.

My words now jejune,

I write for the dust.

Parlor games and puzzles

fill my muddled day,

as memories lapse,

and I doze into a dream.

Brittle bones and

aching joints

join the heartache

of lost loves.

All crumble out of an

existence that once

held vibrant joy.

What used to matter,

no longer does.

Pretty is just a word.

Youth a distant fantasy.

A life of repentance

follows me as I enter

the shadowed years.

ANN CHRISTINE TABAKA

ANN CHRISTINE TABAKA was nominated for the 2017 Pushcart Prize in Poetry, has been internationally published, and won poetry awards from numerous publications. She is the author of 9 poetry books.  Christine lives in Delaware, USA.  She loves gardening and cooking.  Chris lives with her husband and two cats. Her most recent credits are: Burning word Literary Journal; The Write Connection; Ethos Literary Journal, North of Oxford, Pomona Valley Review, Page & Spine, West Texas Literary Review, The Hungry Chimera, Sheila-Na-Gig, Pangolin Review, Foliate Oak Review, Better Than Starbucks!, The Write Launch, The Stray Branch, The McKinley Review, Fourth & Sycamore.