National Poetry Month : Armand Garnet Ruffo,

 

 

Bliss

 

these days my life sits
sluggish and dumb
staring at a screen
and to be honest
it makes me want
to scream
    – war and horror
             mum wake up, mum wake up
        horror and war –
oh, to be twelve
again and climbing
up a tree, up high
and reaching
reaching
for the ever
everlasting
sky.

 

 

Armand Garnet Ruffo is a citizen of the Anishinaabe Nation. His publications include Norval Morrisseau: Man Changing Into Thunderbird (2014) and Treaty# (2019), both finalists for Governor General’s Literary Awards. In 2020, he was awarded the Latner Writers’ Trust Poetry Prize in recognition of his work.  He teaches at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.