.And the Fear Makes Us Special

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

John Wing is a Canadian living in California. His second collection of
poems, written mostly in 1998–99, is an interesting study of
dichotomies. The public stage life of the standup comedian is explored
in the first section, “the comedian,” while the second section,
“nothing like a cactus,” deals with the poet’s private life as a
father of two girls.

The poems in “the comedian” section explore the “isolation and
… temptation” the comedian encounters as he travels from town to
town. We meet such people as the comedian who cannot sit down during his
acts because he may crease his pants (“two shows only”) and the
infighting prevalent in an industry where one has to take advantage of
the opportunities provided, regardless of the personal cost (“inside
joke, ethics: 1982”). In the “nothing like a cactus” section, Wing
debates which is more important, 15 minutes of notoriety or raising two
girls. He also exposes the shallowness of road life, proclaiming that
“Glamour is a place you haven’t been” (“tall tale”).

Wing is not judgmental. The people in his world are who they are
because of what they are. Their insecurities force them to go in front
of an audience (“interview”). Their second great fear is being like
everyone else (“life italicized”). However, this is contrasted with
the underachiever who has never killed his classmates, impregnated his
teacher, or “done anything newsworthy.”

The book challenges the reader with ideas, not new ways of presenting
them, as it chronicles the evolution of a small-town Ontario youth and
his move to a major cosmopolitan American city. There is a factual
error: the St. Boniface Cemetery is on the banks of the Red River, not
the Assiniboine River. But even this minor flaw makes sense in the
context of a lifestyle that involves passing through—rather than
living in—towns and cities.