Book Title:  Impersonating Flowers

Author:  David Bateman

Publishing Company:  Frontenac House

Year:  2007

# of Pages: 75

ISBN #:  978-1-897181-11-9

$15.95 

3 ½ Stars 

Reviewer:  Deborah Ground Buckner 

Canadian poet and performance artist David Bateman lives in a world different from mine, in fact, a world I've never visited.  But with Impersonating Flowers as a travel guide, I admit it looks like an interesting place.  This collection of poetry follows his Invisible Foreground, published in 2005.   

Impersonating Flowers may be viewed as a journey from adolescence to middle age, noting rites of passage along the way, becoming familiar with and comfortable with a gay identity.  Subject matter ranges from important historical milestones in life to erotic fantasies about Betty Rubble (of The Flintstones) to social issues.   

The fun comes in the various poetic styles employed from long narratives to short free verse and even a haiku found on a sign at West Edmonton Mall Water World: 

area closed for

maintenance and cleaning due

to fecal mishap 

There is a good deal of humor included in Bateman's work as well, my favorite poem of the collection being: Maternal Fears:  A List 

Her son wearing a dress

Her son wearing a dress onstage

Her son wearing a dress onstage talking about her

Her son wearing a dress onstage talking about her 

and not reserving her a front row seat. 

Also enjoyable is the lament of a rural drag queen: 

we rare and rural drag queens

know a lonely luckless life

we long for ostrich feathers

but get chickens, cows, and strife  

For me, the message of this collection is found in Excerpt from Performance Piece “A Particular Class of Cross-Dresser”: 

that's me

on the Trans-Canada highway of gender

my headless wig torn off by the roof of the underpass

of vague cultural imperceptive momentary

Miss Trans-Canada trans-gender trans-sexual

I like the trans part the best

I always wanna be there 

I cannot conclude I want to be in Bateman's world, but Impersonating Flowers does provide a n entertaining and thought-provoking view of it.