David A. Estringel

Poetry
                   D a v i d    A .   E s t r i n g e l 
David A. Estringel's first published book Indelible Fingerprints from Alien Buddha Press contains prose and verse that are reflective of the significant parts of his life that have not only shaped him but left permanent marks (both good and bad). This published work contains 40 pieces of poetry and short fiction that have been previously published and reprinted in over 44 literary magazines and journals in the United States and abroad. Indelible Fingerprints offers 37 pieces of verse, ranging from free-verse to prose poetry to haiku, of various influences (Classical to dirty realism), as well as 3 short stories that encompass oeuvres of kitchen sink realism, speculative fiction, and the surreal.

                                                  Nine Haikus

                       1.

           Tow'rs crumble to dust,

           erasing names from gravestones.

           Time wins in the end.

                     2.

            Our asymmetries

            mesh and catch like well-greased gears—

           a brutal machine.

                      3.

           Hands, wrinkled and bulged,

           touch me with frail tenderness.

           Taste of mother’s milk.

                       4.

            Black holes, flushing like

            intergalactic toilets.

            God takes out the trash.

                        5.

           With sterling icepicks,

           I pierce dusty eardrums with

           ars poetica.

                        6.

          This deaf’ning silence,

          tumult of resting heartbeats,

          becomes our swan song.

                       7.

          Cruelty of white

          paper—relentless torment.

          Plague of poets’ souls.

                        8.

           How easily torn,

           like hanging fruit from the bough,

           is the willing heart

                        9.

           A tangle of limbs,

           Lost in the rapture of touch,

          I am you, you’re me.

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