TPQ OnLine
three poems by Douglas Tanoury

Gray Nude In the dim light of December Afternoons She is a shadow moving from bath to bedroom Wearing twilight Like a loose robe that falls open to reveal A silhouette of breasts a dark profile of legs Curved thighs The touch of her still wet hair against my cheek That afterbath scent of jasmine surrounding Her skin As I capture a shadow odalisque stretching over me By breathing in and holding her deep within My chest

(Click on thumbnail for image you can actually see)

The Woods Edge In Sargent's rendering of Monet Painting at the woods edge the Grass is golden and a stand of birches Whitens the wooded shadows The brightness of grass and trees Smell of linseed and oil paints And Monsieur Monet's blue smock Is the color of the unseen sky Beneath a tree a woman in a white Dress sits waiting and wearing A small dab of golden grass as Her hat on a summer afternoon Her head turned arms folded distant And bored as the Master holds palette And brush her dress spread on the grass Whitens the wooded shadows

Bathers Together in a bath drinking Monterey chardonnay with Bubbles on my hand I lift Faceted crystal to my lips And smile at her and say the Wine tastes of Autumn days Leaning back against her The water softly gurgles As I sip breathing in the Scent and smile at her And say the wine has the Fragrance of November air My glass resting on the Tub's ledge flashes in Candlelight and I smile And say my wine is wholly Golden like dunes by the sea On the road to Monterey

Doug Tanoury grew up in Detroit and still lives in the area with his wife and three children. His poems have been published in Writer's Digest, Ego Flights and Alura Quarterly. Online he has been published on Spectrum Press, realpoetik, The Bridge, Sour Grapes and others. For more information about Doug and additional samples of his work please visit the Athens Avenue Poetry Circle. Doug can be contacted at dtanoury@ix.netcom.com.

Image of John Singer Sargent's painting "Claude Monet Painting at the Edge of a Wood" provided courtesy of WebMuseum.