CONTEMPORARY AND ANCIENT HISTORY
Men with digital briefcases step on wild flowers
Growing through the sidewalk cracks, wonder if
The wild flowers’ screams could be recorded
As background sounds for their home horror movies.
A fife, a drum, tattooed, nose-ringed adolescents
In American revolutionary costumes prance
Back and forth, to and fro, in shopping mall show windows,
Step out to march through opium dens in Hong Kong
And red-roofed, mountain-monasteries in Tibet.
Now, at this precise time in history, historians
Claim and reclaim there were no barbarian invasions
In Rome, only in the USA. In Rome, it was only
Street vendors selling vacations to archipelagoes,
And selling bargain-priced beef-flavored noodles.
A SHORT JOURNEY INSIDE THE SELF
Storks nested on the cerise Chinese Chimneys
Of the squat, fat suburban thatch-topped house
Built by a Sunday Alchemist, who worked as Pharmacist
During the weekdays, and on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The ballet dancer leaped from the civil atrocities
To Circe and became a pig. Now he had a skin
That Socrates never had (see J.S.Mill) when Socrates
Wallowed in the mud. Socrates, insensitive; the pig deified.
IT WAS TUESDAY AT MIDNIGHT AFTER THE ELECTION
There were whispers and shadows in the white room,
The whispers, inaudible, their susurrus frightened;
The shadows spoke loudly, their dark sounds
Transformed the white curtains into white wings.
The white wings’ flutters consoled the disappointment.
But outside, a bell rung, its regular rhythm
And its history crowded the room with cold dreams.
EXORCISM
Specks of a drizzle
On the yellow stripes
Of a black butterflies’ wings,
Minute yellow globes
Quiver in the flutter
Of the butterfly’s flight;
I am renewed,
It is an exorcism of old words
And old arrangements of words
Along with an exorcism
Of old kisses.
THE CHOIR
Seen
Through
A raindrop
On window pane,
The red bird, a red blur.
The blur boomed
Like a flower,
Had five red petals,
Each petal sung.
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 Duane Locke
2716 Jefferson Street
Tampa, FL 33602-16200
| Announcing: THREE NEW BOOKS OF POEMS By Duane Locke
[Duane Locke has renounced print publication to publish electronically. Duane Locke has over 4,000 poems published, over 2,000 in print publications, American Poetry Review, etc. and since September 1999, over 2,000 in e zines.]
1. Published in February, 2OO2, E book:
THE SQUID'S BLACK INK,
Published by Ze books (the publisher of poetry
For only 69 cents per book)
Contact: http.//www.blquanbeck.com.zebooks. Inquire:
NOVLNymph@aol.com or Ward708@aol.com
2. Published in February, 2002, E Book:
FROM A TINY ROOM,
Published in Spain by OTO' S E-BOOKS, http.//atotos.gksdesign.com/ebooks/locke or http://atotos.gksdesign.com/ebooks/buy1.htm or
http://www.atotos-ebooks.com
Inquire: guiam@wols.es.
Price: 5.60 Euros.
3, Forthcoming in April, 2002, E book:
THE DEATH OF DAPHNE,
Contains 50 poems never published before. To be published by 4*9*1, URL: 491.20m.com. Inquire: Stompdcr@aol.com Price $5.
Order the above through the internet.
[Duane Locke's 14th print book is still in print, WATCHING WISTERIA. Order from Vida Publishing via iod@ironoverload.org. Or order from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and many others. Paperback, $9.95; Hardcover, $19.95]
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[BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: Duane Locke, Doctor of Philosophy in English Renaissance literature, Professor Emeritus of the Humanities, was Poet in Residence at the University of Tampa for over 20 years. Has had over 2,000 of his own poems published in over 500 print magazines such as American Poetry Review, Nation, Literary Quarterly, Black Moon, and Bitter Oleander. Is author of 14 print books of poems, the latest is WATCHING WISTERIA ( to order write Vida Publishing, P.O. Box 12665, Lake, Park, FL. 33405-0665, or Amazon or Barnes and Noble). Since September 1999, he became a cyber poet and started submitting on-line, and since September 1999 he has added to his over 2,000 print acceptances with 1,195 acceptances by e zines.
He is also a painter. Now has exhibitions at Thomas Center Galleries (Gainesville, FL) and Tyson Trading Company (Micanopy, FL) Recently a one-man show at Pyramid Galleries (Tampa, FL)
Also, a photographer, has had 116 of his photos selected for appearance on e zines. He photographs trash in alleys. Moves in close to find beauty in what people have thrown away.
He now lives alone in a two-story decaying house in the sunny Tampa slums. He lives isolated and estranged as an alien, not understanding the customs, the costumes, the language (some form of postmodern English) of his neighbors. The egregious ugliness of his neighborhood has recently been mitigated by the esthetic efforts of the police force who put bright orange and yellow posters on the posts to advertise the location is a shopping mall for drugs. His alley is the dumping ground for stolen cars. One advantage
Of living in this neighborhood, if your car is stolen, you can step out in the back and pick it up. Also, the burglars are afraid to come in on account of the muggers.
His recreational activities are drinking wine, listening to old operas, and reading postmodern philosophy.
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