Cheerios

sleep  

hangs around 

moon drunk 

as the white sun spills 

spokes across the wall 

frayed  

by a weekend 

scratching lottery tickets  

with a flimsy hope  

to escape 

the empty holes of Monday 

to see those  

lighthearted smiles  

of dead Hollywood stars  

like Cary Grant or Jimmy Stewart 

after calling in sick  

to watch Turner Classic Movies  

with a bowl 

of Honey Nut Cheerios 

instead of being stuck  

in traffic 

with sped-up  

twisted faces  

shouting in the rearview 

knowing time  

drags us 

across the carpet 

like a cigarette ash 

dangling  

in a subterranean street  

of a literary novel  

set in Mexico City

like those lines  

folded across faces in suburbia 

clipping the grass 

as the sun  

shines down  

hidden  

behind drywall  

with all of us ready to

take it in our hands

and rip it from the sky  

and whistle: 

it’s Saturday

Ryan Di Francesco is a Canadian writer and teacher with a BA in English Literature. He’s the Editor-in-Chief of Shadow and Sax, an emerging literary magazine, where his poetry and short fiction have appeared. His poems have been published or are forthcoming in The Pit Periodical, Ink in Thirds, Bicoastal Review, Bitter Melon Review, Rawhead, SHINE Quarterly, SQUID Magazine, Azarão lit journal, The Orange Rose, The Amphibian Literary & Art Journal, The Page Gallery and more. His nonfiction and essays have appeared in The Toronto Star, The Hardball Times, and elsewhere. He also co-wrote the indie film Streets of Wonderland, which won multiple festival awards.