Nico Amador
Maggot Rhyme
“love’s the burning boy”
—Elizabeth Bishop
Obstinate boy, hot mess.
Sun on bare ribs, cigarettes.
Arm-tattooed, sailor.
Salty-mouthed, failure.
Pier pervert, shipwreck.
Ugly crier, pretty neck.
Outta money, always cool.
Big dreams, trade school.
Home late, stumble in.
Text yr ex, tailspin.
Nico Amador is a poet, community organizer and facilitator based in Vermont by way of San Diego and Philadelphia. His poems have appeared in Bettering American Poetry, Vol 3., Poem-a-Day, The Cortland Review, Hypertext Review and elsewhere. His chapbook, Flower Wars, was selected as the winner of the Anzaldúa Poetry Prize and published by Newfound Press in 2017. He is an alumni of the Lambda Literary Foundation's Writers Retreat and an MFA candidate at Bennington College. His Twitter is @njamador1.