My Ex

By Doug Tanoury

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 is no Paris,

Berlin or Barcelona,

but rather, a Soviet-bloc

brutalist landscape,

dark and unwelcoming

as Prague in a late

afternoon thunderstorm,

or more accurately,

she is monolithic

like the blackened

concrete block buildings

you see lining

the narrow streets

of the Hungarian Capital.

Yes, my ex is Budapest.

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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.