“Saturday by the Canal” is composed in one long stanza of 21 lines. As with the majority of Soto’s poetry, the poem is written in free verse, using a conversational tone with no formal structure such as metering or rhyme. This gives the poem a casual and accessible feel, as the author reflects on his under-privileged childhood in Fresno. Excluding the bookends of the first and the last sentences, the sentences within the poem tend to end and begin mid-line. For example:

Too close to dying to understand. The hallways

Stank of poor grades and unwashed hair. Thus,

A friend and I sat watching the water on a Saturday (Lines 5-7),

This structure adds momentum to the poem, carrying the reader from one thought to the next in the middle of a line. Thematically the poem is divided into three parts – unhappiness at school (Lines 1-6), dreaming of San Francisco at the canal (Line 6-14), and the wildness of youth (Lines 14-21). These transitions are not reflected in the format of the poem, but in the subtle effect of thoughts and experiences seamlessly bleeding into each other, just as the outer and inner life of the teen boy converge on one another.