Duane writes:
The two poems, Al Fresco Cafe Poems, 213 and 214, are part of a long series. The beginning poems are about people rushing to the Al Fresco Cafe to have fun before they die. Everyone is certain that he or she will soon be killed by a terrorist. The protagonist of the poem has been promised by Renata that she will meet him at the Cafe. But she never shows. When these poems take place, he waited 214 days for Renata. While he waits, he reviews her poems. These poems of Renata are among her last, after she has broken away from creative writing classes. The earlier poems of her have the professor's comments attached.

Duane Locke, after being forcefully evicted by what he calls "The Tampa Gestapo" (city inspectors) from his fifty-year home in the Tampa crime district and slums, now lives by a lake populated with wild birds in Lakeland, Florida. His Tampa environment was pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers, and the homeless, but now his environment is snowy egrets, wood ibis and wood ducks. Duane has a Doctor of Philosophy degree, specializing in poetry from Donne to Marvell. During his academic career at a less-than-mediocre university where he wasted much of his life he taught varied courses in poetry from Homer to Michael Palmer. He has had more than 5,000 poems published. As of December 2005, 5,597. He has also had more than 276 photos published, mainly photos of Tampa trash and Lakeland's mystic flowers. Duane has had a number of one man art shows and exhibitions of his paintings throughout Florida. The entire Spring 2004 issue of the magazine Bitter Oleander is devoted to a 92-page interview and sixty of his poems. The book Extraordinary Interpretations by Gary Monroe has a discussion of his paintings. He is listed in Who's Who in America 2006 (Marquis). Duane can be reached via email at: duanelocke@netzero.net.