a poem by curtis rogers

Aubade to Depleted Ozone


Summertime Manhattan hits
the button that calls the flight
attendant over. Could I
have another blanket—hits it.
Running its fingers
through my hair, Park
Avenue’s sledded breeze
feels a lump like a horseshoe
at the trunk of my scalp.
I am wading through a
battering ram to get to you.
New York is New York’s
reading light. The prehistoric
ribbit of a payphone, its snore.

A receiver shivers inside its bin.
Shivering casts its vote for me.
Turns its single cheek to me.
Along the newly-open
restaurant fronts, flowers squirm
& feed coins into the warmth.
Out-to-drift is my chaperone.
I am at my controls.
The TV turns on behind my seat.
A desert is flown
in spoonful by spoonful
with our hoof-marks still
in the sand. The sand is
fired into glass
we, having crossed, cross.





This poem first appeared in The Literary Review.


Curtis Rogers received his MFA in poetry from NYU's Creative Writing Program. His poem "Of Plenty" was selected as the 2014 poetry winner of Black Warrior Review's annual writing contests. He has additional poems appearing or forthcoming in The Literary Review, Coconut, cream city review, DIAGRAM, Painted Bride Quarterly, and elsewhere. Currently, he works and lives in Washington, DC.