She is so figurative
Calls it bookkeeping
After the third Crimean cognac
Calls it accounting
I call it samsara
On holiday she calls it
Uncle Sam
Except on July 4
She calls it
Uncle Tom
But I don’t understand
Her system of debits and credits
I do sense
An accounts receivable
Her sister
Is an auditor
I once auditioned for her
I need a patron
I need a pardon
During rehearsals
I always hear hearses
She is now calling it
Break dancing
Such spinning
In shopping malls

Is anachronistic
I do flamenco much duende
When a child
In Las Vegas
I saw a white ball
Run in and out of numbers.
No it was in Havana
Before Castro
I do not know where it was
I do not even know
Where I am
She pretends this room
Is a tumble weed
She claims there are
No cars outside
It is a desert
And what is moving
Are birds called roadrunners
But I hear at my back
The sounds
Of horns and motors

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Duane Locke

Duane Locke, Doctor of Philosophy, English Renaissance Literature, and Professor Emeritus of the Humanities, was Poet-in-Residence at the University of Tampa for over 20 years.

He has had over 5,000 poems published. Over 2,000 were published in print magazines, such as American Poetry Review, The Nation, and The Bitter Oleander. The 2004 Spring issue of The Bitter Oleander devoted a 92 page interview of Locke and included sixty of his poems. In September 1999, he became a cyber poet and added over 3,000 poems online at such places as Cosmoetica, Adagio Verse Quarterly and Penhimalaya. In August 2004, he published his e-book, Observations, from Poetic Inhalation. He is the author of 14 print books of poetry, and in 2002, added three e-books, The Squid's Dark Ink, From a Tiny Room, and The Death of Daphne.

He is also a painter, and has had many exhibitions, such as at the city art museum in Gainesville, Florida, and the Polk Museum of Art. He also has over 278 photos in e-zines. He does close-ups of trash tossed away in alleys and on sidewalks. He recently completed a series called “Mystic Vegetation” and “The Goddess Inanna.” He is currently doing what he calls Surphotography, and photographing nature, birds, insects.

His old biographical notes, published many times, are now obsolete. The notes stated that he lived in an old decaying house in the sunny Tampa slums, populated largely by drug dealers and the homeless. The house was condemned by the city of Tampa inspectors, which he calls the “Tampa Gestapo“, and after his living at this location for fifty years, he was forced to leave within six days.

The forced move was due to the fall of the bungalow in his large back yard. The bungalow contained a priceless literary library, which is now under debris. An army of inspectors descended and decided he could no longer live in his home, so Duane Locke left Tampa to relocate in Lakeland, Florida. He lives by a lake abundant with wildlife. The fall was a “Fortunate Fall,” for he now lives in a more desirable and pleasant location. The only disadvantage is that he can find no trash to photograph, no broken beer bottles on sidewalk, no litter as it was in Tampa.

For more information, Google Duane Locke on the web to find about a half-million entries under his name. On MSN, only 60,000 entries.

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© 2006 Duane Locke