Unsettled

Ronald Charles Epstein is a Toronto-based freelance writer and published poet.

Zachariah Wells is a Maritimer who worked as a freight handler for First
Air in isolated island communities. Unsettled commemorates his northern
experiences.

North American culture covers the lives of assembly-line workers and
fishers, but has ignored airline freight handlers until now. In “A
Cargo Handler Howls on His Fifteen Minute Break,” the author vividly
reveals the job’s unknown pitfalls, such as “diesel dust, black snot
...” Wells has not been dubbed a “people’s poet” like the late
Milton Acorn, but he explicitly asserts his populist convictions in a
dedication that slams airline executives “who have proven themselves
more rats than captains.”

Unexpectedly, the labourer finds humour in his job. “Forklift
Operator Wanted: Recreational Facilities Provided” cleverly parodies
classified advertising. All the stressed-out forklift operator wants to
do is to ram an aircraft with his vehicle’s steel forks. When a
crashed plane is scrapped and its hull is laid out on the ramp for him,
he attributes his luck to management decisions—the ultimate backhanded
compliment.

This book maintains and advances Canadian literary populism.