The Asthmatic Glass Blower

Jaroslaw Zurowsky is a translator and editor in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

This collection is divided into three sections; “Sometimes Gay Means
Happy,” “February,” and “Persuading the Imaginary.” Through
these poems, the reader gets to know and understand Billeh Nickerson,
reading his life story in reverse chronological order until the final
poem, “Asthmatic Glassblower,” in which the five-year-old asthmatic
Nickerson plays at being a glassblower. (In reality, he can never be a
glassblower, because of his asthma.) Throughout this journey back in
time, we see how intertwined his life is with popular culture, a binding
thread uniting all North Americans.

The first poem of the collection articulates the collection’s main
theme: “The push of knowing you’re different, the pull of wanting to
belong.” Nickerson’s lifelong attempt to find his niche in a world
of preconceived roles is no grandiose, romantic struggle. Nickerson
presents a very undramatic world in which a waitress talks about her
pregnant dog, green apples think about unripe bananas, bus drivers wave
to truck drivers, and Farrah Fawcett’s teeth can stimulate discussion.
There is no pretentiousness in this well-written, interesting, and
topical collection.