Cajun Mutt Press Featured Writer 02/04/22

Discoloration

Hopscotch squares
and street flowers,
drawn with sidewalk chalk,
‘round castles that sit upon
sun-dried patches
of brown cloud,
stretch across concrete slabs
like ghosts of crime scenes
pulled from tabloid headlines
of an old Daily Post.
White
with electric pinks, blues, and yellows
etch hopeful prognostications
(like blades)
on crumbling slates,
amidst the stink
of fermenting cigarette butts
and backwash
from broken beer bottles—
a chill before the storm.
How long
before the next hard rain
that washes away the stuff of dreams
in Technicolor runoff
for the parched gutter,
leaving the street, again,
to cry lifeless tears,
splattering upon stoops
and stone-cold petals,
that turn brown in the sun?

David Estringel is a writer/poet with works published in literary publications, such as The Opiate, Azahares, Cephalopress, North Meridian Review, Poetry Ni, DREICH, Horror Sleaze Trash, Cajun Mutt Press, Terror House Magazine, and The Blue Nib. His first collection of poetry and short fiction Indelible Fingerprints (Alien Buddha Press) was published April 2019, followed by three poetry chapbooks, Punctures (Really Serious Literature – 2019), PeripherieS (The Bitchin’ Kitsch – 2020), and Eating Pears on the Rooftop (Finishing Line Press – July 2022). His new book of micro poetry little punctures, a collaboration with UK illustrator and artist, Luca Bowles, will be released in 2024 by Really Serious Literature.