Francis is known for integrating elements of spoken word poetry and performance into his writing,[5] drawing on his experience as a poet, playwright, actor, artist and theater director.[6] In 2002 he published his book-length satiric poem "City Treaty,"[7] which engages with "globalization, neoliberalism, and narratives of cultural identity"[8] as it deals with the "ongoing links of treaty trickery with the everyday discourses of global capitalism."[9] The long poem has been called "a streetwise anti-globalization manifesto for the indigenous world"[3] and "an exuberant collection of songs, interventions, jokes, maps, histories and manifestos."[10]
"City Treaty" received the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer in 2002.[11]
His poem "Edgewalker" has been called an important work in understanding the "ideological boundaries that often separate the beneficiaries of colonialism from those who are objectified and impoverished by it."[12]
A second volume of his poetry, Bush Camp, was published posthumously in 2008.[13]
