Sanity
by RYAN DI FRANCESCO
the late-night trains
and city lights
flicker
in and out
of chimneys
broken
like teeth
scattered
across pieces
of concrete
cornered
along the back alley
rippled
with spray-painted messages
behind the Portuguese cafés
at dawn
pouring flesh
into a clatter
of morning hell
grinding down wounds
sliced at the butcher
tossed
on a scale
at a dim downtown market
pretending
some dumb
sanity
parked on a hill
collecting grime
waiting
without eyes
or tongue
for the faceless hours
to finally wake up
from this
unnameable place
of flies
and blizzards
and move again
like invisible rain
and move again
like shadows
collapsing
under roofs
and move
again
Ryan Di Francesco (he/him) is a neurodivergent Canadian writer and teacher. His writing has appeared in The Toronto Star and is published or forthcoming in Acta Victoriana, Soliloquies Anthology, Pinhole Poetry, Pacific Review, ELJ Editions, The Pit Periodical, Shoegaze Literary, and Phylum Press. He is the editor-in-chief of Shadow and Sax, an independent literary and arts press. His chapbooks include Skeleton Mine Disaster (Bottlecap Press), Mirage of Burning Things (Parlyaree Press), and The Paper Hound and Canadian Classic (Alien Buddha Press). He was shortlisted for the Rhonda Gail Williford Poetry Prize.