Doug Tanoury’s two poems


My Ex


Some women

remind me of cities,

and like cities each has

a unique character and spirit.

I am thinking specifically

of my ex now.


She was no London,

Paris or Berlin.

She was heavy and dark,

unwelcoming and cold

as Prague on a rainy

April afternoon,


or more accurately,

she reminded me

of the blackened

concrete block buildings

you see lining

the narrow streets

of the Hungarian Capital.

Yes, my ex is Budapest.

Practice


Living with her was my Buddhist practice,

A testing of humble endurance,


one long lesson, a lengthy study

in quietly suffering the insufferable.


The boisterous reality and riotous truth of her

elbowing into the crowded salon 


of consciousness, wearing the black evening gown 

of obsession, beginning the 


loquacious soliloquies of intrusive thoughts,

midnight ruminations that grow


into the early morning unintended consequences 

of loving the loathsome.


Doug Tanoury is a lifelong poet whose work has appeared widely in both print and online journals. He is the author of more than twenty chapbooks, including St. Mary’s Art Cloister, Tolstoy’s Ghost, and Chicago Poems. An outsider artist by circumstance and choice, Tanoury writes outside the academic tradition, bringing a distinct voice shaped by lived experience rather than formal literary training. He holds a BBA and has spent much of his professional life as a management consultant, a background that informs the clarity and structure underlying his work. His poetry often explores themes of place, memory, spirituality, and the emotional landscapes of urban life with a lilting lyricism, particularly in and around Detroit. Tanoury continues to write and submit new work, maintaining a steady presence in contemporary poetry while remaining independent of academic affiliation.

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