Rudy Francisco

Rudy Francisco is a young successful beat poet, who was born and raised in San Diego, California by
his mother and aunt who were very present in his life. The poet is an author of a book titled Getting
Stitches, 2010 winner of the Individual World Poetry Slam (also took third place in 2009 and 5
th

place in 2013) and co-owns one of the largest venues in San Diego for poetry slams. He absorbs his
life experiences and transforms them into free-style poems, sometimes performing them. While he
is self-proclaimed not a love poet, some of his most well-known poems are to do with relationships.

Francisco has been heavily influenced by many factors in his life, some of the main contributing
influences include; growing up in a household with domestic violence, the battle against racism he
faced and relationships. His life experiences have moulded him into the person he is today are often
what his poetry is about, but he does also respond to
current issues such as racism, sexism, domestic violence
and controversial topics such as same sex marriage.
Despite these factors, it was primarily his high school
teacher who pushed him to pursuing a career involving
the arts. Many of his poems follow themes of identity,
belonging, relationships and social issues.
The formatting, themes and choice of vocabulary is
definitely been altered by modern society. His work is
mostly known due to the performances he has made at
poetry slams










Lopsided
She is a stuttering soliloquy. A wounded symphony played by an orchestra of her familys I-told-you-
so's. A tattered woman who bleeds like an oak tree. Her life story is just a sandpaper love song
written on a napkin full of all the reasons why no one should ever try to hug the rain. You always end
up soaking wet and by yourself.
She: a rusty faucet, dripping self-esteem that falls quicker than short skirts in motels when the sun
blinks for too long. You see, when confidence hits the ground, it echoes like sin in a room full of God,
and I could hear her coming a mile away. She has violin strings for legs, a graveyard of awkward
treble clefs buried in her knees and I can see the suffering inside of the concert of her walk.
Her footsteps: they sound like the ignition to a fathers car the day that he decided that he was too
thirsty to pour water on his own seed so when she calls me daddy I never really get excited
because I know that its just the title that she gives the branches in her life that are destined to be
abducted by the wind.
She comes over on Wednesdays. She walks into my room like a question that neither one of us has
the courage to ask. Yknow sometimes, words, they get too heavy to sit on the ivory pedestals that
weve built inside of our mouths. Yknow sometimes, our actions, they join hands and they become
behaviours that are too complicated for lips to say out loud, so instead, we just liberate our flesh
letting skin speak on our behalf, the language of those who are just as afraid of commitment as they
are of being alone and we speak it like its our native tongue.
Honestly, I cant tell you her favourite colour her middle name or what her face looks like with
the lights on. All I know is that we are both allergic to the exact same things. Things like
compliments, the word beautiful and someone saying I love you with arms full of acceptance and
sincerity on their breath.
Most days, I wonder what she carries in the luggage underneath her eyes. I wonder if those bags
ever get too heavy for her face. But instead, I let those questions sandcastle inside of my stomach. I
amputate the parts of me that have grown fond of her smell.
And I wash my sheets.
And I think to myself, You know most men are proud of things like this

The poem is about a hypothetical interaction that the poet has with a woman who represents many
women who has been in her shoes. It represents women who have been through abuse,
abandonment and who are afraid of getting too attached to someone but yet doesnt want to be on
their own. It is about how despite being curious he doesnt physically ask her what is wrong. The is
too nervous to say what she thinks, due to her family being unsupportive.

I like this poem because of the language that Rudy Francisco uses and how he builds this character
up with metaphors. I like how he tells the poem as if it is a story about a women whose story he
could see through, without even truly knowing her at all.