Feature: Doug Tanoury Day 4

Breakfast at Banamex

Wearing a tight black dress and
Very high heels with sharp pointy toes,
The woman standing in line says: “Huevos Rancheros.”
The sounds the words make as she says them are sexy.

“The oven must be very hot,”
Says a woman in a white huipile
Standing behind her, “At least 500 degrees.”

“Celsius?” A man in a navy blue business suite standing
in front of the woman wearing the tight black dress and
Very high heels with sharp pointy toes asks,
And a woman in a grey dress standing in front of him
hisses “Idiot” and slaps him on his belly.
There is laughter up and down the line.

“You must use corn tortillas” a woman's voice says
From the front of the line.
She is out of sight
Near the bank tellers windows.

The line is long now and loops, twists and snakes
back upon itself and there is a man in a red guayabera
near the end of the line that is standing
Across from the woman wearing the tight black dress and
Very high heels with sharp pointy toes,
And he says, and it is not quite certain,
But he seems to be talking to someone
Who is not there or perhaps to himself:

“Breakfast is the saddest meal to eat alone.
It says so much about you, like your lover has left you.
You sleep alone at night. You have no one.”

The woman wearing the tight black dress and
Very high heels with sharp pointy toes looks at the floor and
Pretends she does not hear the man wearing the red guayabera.
The line falls silent and no one speaks.
A teller through a window calls,
“Next! Next please!

© Doug Tanoury

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Q&A

Q: What is one thing you want to be remembered for most as a writer/poet?

A: I just want my work to live beyond me. I want it to have a life of its own. I think that is what every poet wants. I have been writing long enough to have accumulated a large body of work and I have been fortunate enough to have a large percentage of it published, online and in print. I would like that process to continue. If for some reason, I cannot write poetry any more, I just want what I have already done to continue to published and read. That is the only legacy I hope for.

Q: When did you first have an interest in poetry?

A: I began writing poetry in grade school. I went to a small Catholic School in the inner city of Detroit. I found that reading and writing was a great way to escape. I always found poetry entertaining as a boy. I remember being enchanted by Edgar Allan Poe, John Masefield and Robert W. Service. These poets influenced me a great deal as a boy. I also remember my 7th grade poetry anthology entitled: Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle. This book was delightful and I still remember many of the poems. This was my first interst in poetry as a boy. I began writing poetry seriously as an adult in my early 20's, so around the late 1970s I began to write and publish poetry. I was mentored and encouraged by a number of other poets and this helped me establish myself in this craft.