‍Queers Like Me (Book*hug Press) is a moving and very funny collection of poems from Michael V. Smith, a novelist, poet, filmmaker, professor and performer, who looks back at his small-town Cornwall, Ontario roots with compassion, awareness and humour, as in his poem, “A Parallel Universe”: “In some other / Parallel quantum town / Life has given me / The opportunity to meet / Al Charbonneau / At the hardware store / So he can say, / You know / What, sorry I called you / A cocksucker / in Ethics class // But / am I / still my own person / who answers, Hey, no, look / that’s all true. I’ve been / a cocksucker / this whole time. You / are not apologizing / for the right piece / of that action.” In the poem “Facebook,” Smith incorporates his father’s posts from the last months of his life, and Smith’s posts from his father’s bedside; well, you can laugh or cry or both. Smith perfectly captures the tragedy and privilege of being present for a parent’s death: “Overheard Dad talking to palliative / care today: ‘I don’t want to die / I can’t say / why I don’t / want to die, / I just don’t.’” Queers Like Me takes us through Smith’s family dynamics, his youth, his father’s death and then to his new joyous life with his husband. This is a rollicking and honest book.

—Peggy Thompson

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