McPoems
by Billeh Nickerson
Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2009, ISBN 978-1-55152-265-4, $15.95 paper.

I'd love to see Billeh Nickerson write a novel or maybe a play for young adults, and I hope he does it soon so that when my daughter's the right age she can read it or see it--or better yet, act in it. Judging from McPoems, Nickerson's understanding of this age group and their fears and frustrations is acute and nuanced, and his infectious warmth and humour would be a perfect antidote to teenage angst.

That's not to say that McPoems is a book for kids. But it would certainly appeal to teens who are currently working in the food service industry (and would make a great gift for them). Of course, many of us have done a tour of duty in the restaurant business at one time or another, yet to my knowledge, McPoems represents the first time that anyone has brought sustained poetic attention to this setting or this type of work. Work is an underwritten topic in the first place; minimum-wage service work is perhaps the most underwritten of all. As Nickerson shows us, it's a worthy subject. The poems in this book aren't complicated, but they're observant, funny, poignant and compassionate.

Nickerson's choice of the second-person voice puts us in the position of the food service worker. We're standing at the fryer, we're wiping down the walls (and wiping down the walls, and wiping down the walls) (46-47); we're pouring the orange and brown drinks, "regular brown, diet brown or root" (39). In addition to being written in the second person, many of these poems are also in the present tense, which adds to their immediacy.

The unnamed (but recognizable) fast-food restaurant presents numerous dangers and temptations to the "you" of these poems: the opportunity to overeat; unfair management practices; accidents; low wages; exposure to crazy people; and the arrogance that might result from the need to distinguish oneself from them. If these sound awfully similar to the temptations and dangers of the wider world, that's just as Nickerson wants it. The "you" of the poems is curious and sensitive to social nuance. Gradually, as we make our way through the book, observed and observer merge; the "crazies" don't seem quite so crazy when "you" listen to their stories, or when you find yourself doing some pretty crazy things yourself in response to your work conditions.

As one might expect, there's plenty of humour here. Sometimes the joke is at the expense of another: "the Unicorn always orders a soft-serve cone,/ then sticks it to the top of his forehead . . ." (24). Sometimes the joke is on the self:

Hot Apple Pie
Burns your tongue so badly
you can't taste anything
three days later
when you order another. (23)

But our laughter is never unkind, because Nickerson's compassion is evident from the first page. He even finds a kind of beauty here; "Alchemy" dignifies the gold of ordinary fries.

And all is not sweet in McPoem-land. Nickerson may once have earned recognition as an "outstanding employee," but his insider's view of the industry probably won't win him many fans at corporate headquarters.

Minimum Wage
After six months your manager offers
his congratulations, thanks you
for all your hard work
by giving you a twenty-five cent raise
that you'll lose in two weeks
when the minimum wage goes up. (73)

The very accessibility of the language is a political statement; this is not poetry for an elite, but for the ordinary people who eat in fast-food restaurants. The critique is not barbed, but it has bite.

McPoems goes down fast, in a gulp, but it stays with us. Not, like fast food, to give us indigestion, but instead to remind us of our common humanity. Its poems invite us to treat our servers with kindness and to look with kindness on all the sad and lonely souls who pass under the golden arches; to look with kindness on ourselves.

Susan Olding used to work for a pizza chain.

Buy this book at McNally-Robinson Booksellers.

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