RYAN DI FRANCESCO
I Am Building a Desert Around Me
There is the oasis.
Dandelions grow
across concrete plazas.
I pick up puddles of seeds,
hold them in my hand.
And wait for a gust of wind.
A Single Blade
The wet earth
read your paper:
If You Cover the Grass,
It Is Meaningless.
Like the blade of spring—
there.
Chomp
The planet bobbed.
There is a translation in English.
You can find it on Front Street.
Or on a table at an art crawl.
Blades for beef.
Plastic bags for chicken legs.
Fresh eggs.
Somewhere between
the sweet basil
and mint.
Ryan Di Francesco (he/him) is a Canadian writer, teacher, and co-founder of Shadow and Sax. His journalism has been published in The Toronto Star, and his poetry and fiction have appeared or are forthcoming in Acta Victoriana, Pacific Review, Soliloquies Anthology, Pinhole Poetry, MIDLVLMAG, and elsewhere.
His chapbooks include Mirage of Burning Things (Parlyaree Press), Skeleton Mine Disaster (Bottlecap Press), and The Paper Hound and Canadian Classic (Alien Buddha Press). His Jack Spicer–inspired collection Along Tongues Full of Time is forthcoming with Ethel Zine & Micro Press, and his full-length poetry collection Let the Dogs Have It is forthcoming with Parlyaree Press. He was shortlisted for the Rhonda Gail Williford Poetry Prize.