Nickerson does two kinds of poems. The little sexual vignettes are the best — straightforward, honest and, for the most part, quite moving: “My lover feeds me mango/with his switchblade/close against my lips./This is when my tongue/glides easiest,/licks strings of fruit/off our skin/into my mouth.” The other poems are the list poems. Nickerson does a lot of these. There’s a list of what it means to be a faggot; there’s a list of reasons “Why I Love Wayne Gretzky”. These tend to be clever, sometimes funny, but not terribly moving. Although, “It’s Hard to Say No” is probably the most list-like poem of the bunch and it’s a good one: “when he washes the windows,/when he knows the names of all seven dwarves,/when he burns the waffles,/when he pulls your leg,/when he eats your sins,/when he swallows your pain.” (KS)
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