Ode To Mohawk Avenue

On Mohawk Avenue oaks and elms grow tall
And shade the street in dim twilight
On the brightest afternoons of August
When sunlight burns white and hot
I stop for long whiles to watch the play
Of light and darkness in the topmost limbs
And on the asphalt of the road
Where the blacktop itself becomes like tree bark

The street is empty of people and cars
And is mostly silent and still except for
The wind rustling leaves high in the canopies
And animating the interplay of sunlight and shade
On the roofs of houses that line the street
And lay quite in the coolness like dogs
Sleeping in the shadows
In the waning days of summer

On Mohawk Avenue the oaks and elms
Grow tall and straight like classical columns
In a colonnade of mixed orders
Holding up the temple pediment of summer sky
And I must decide in each case
By the shape and girth of its trunk
If one tree is more Ionic than Doric
In the architecture of an August afternoon

August Again

After long months of draught
And endless days of dryness
In these last days of summer
The sound of rainfall
Fills the air like radio static

And I study all the small details of storms
Their going and their coming
Their foreshadowing smell
The telltale blustering of wind
That blows in strong gusts

And I think it is the crack of lightning
The flash of thunder and the dull
Graininess that fills the atmosphere
And fades the landscape that somehow
Causes me to recall

An August once when all the elements
Of storm assailed me and thunder shook me
Lightning struck me and wind whipped
And rain beat against my face
And a long dry season ended

Doug Tanoury is primarily a poet of the internet with the majority never leaving electronic form. His verse can be read at electronic magazines and journals across the world.

Doug credits his 7th grade poetry anthology from Sister Debra's English class, Reflections On A Gift Of Watermelon Pickle And Other Modern Verse (Stephen Dunning, Edward Lueders and Hugh Smith, (c)1966 by Scott Foresman & Company) as exerting the greatest influence on his work. He still keeps a copy of it at his writing desk.