Dicko King was born at the old Carney Hospital in South Boston, and raised in St. Margaret's parish in Dorchester during the last of the grand and mythical eras presided over by tribes of feral children-- when adventures could be had beyond the watchful eyes of a mother or father, and despite strictures and wounds inflicted by priest or nun. His first poetry book, Doggerland: Ancestral Poems, was a finalist for the Louise Bogan Award and won the Off the Grid Poetry Prize. His second book is Bird Years (Mayapple Press, 2017).