Linen Flowers
At ten o’clock
his mouth
was stuffed
with one
linen word.
It was stretched
into a silk heart
spurt of stiff ash.
Dead wings
fell from a tower.
He sees everything
run down an ax
submerged
in him.
Ryan Di Francesco (he/him) is a neurodivergent Canadian writer, teacher, and editor based in Ontario. His journalistic work has appeared in The Toronto Star, and his poetry and fiction are published or forthcoming in over fifty literary journals and anthologies. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Shadow and Sax, an independent literary and arts press. 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 forthcoming books include Let the Dogs Have It (Parlyaree Press) and Along Tongues Full of Time (Ethel Press). He was shortlisted for the Rhonda Gail Williford Poetry Prize.
