Detroit Poems by Doug Tanoury

My House And Shadows


A black and white photograph
Of the house I grew up in hangs
Framed on my living room wall

It stands alight in winter sun
A series of rectangles topped
With gable triangles of the roof

I stare into darkened windows
Where I once gazed onto photo
Perfect afternoons filled with light

The front porch is a box held up
By two white pillars and my
Grandfather’s swing is empty now

It looks as if no one is home but 
I alone looking at this landscape
And plain facade of red bricks


Windows some dark and others
White with shades drawn against
The brightness of late afternoon


As the sun sets behind the bar and
Bowling alley across Gratiot Avenue
A lone street lamp casts its silhouette


On Rohns street the shadows are long
Stretched into just before sunset length 
In front of and on the house I grew up in.


Reprinted with permission from Doug Tanoury © 2003 All Rights Reserved