Jonathan McGregor
Poem to Cheyenne Mountain
What sleeps inside you, beast,
your ridgeback spines
pricked for an apocalypse?
The Broadmoor—the dragon’s horde.
We’ve always lived like this:
huddling fire in a cave,
painting danger on the walls.
Editor’s Note: Cheyenne Mountain, a three-peaked mountain southwest of downtown Colorado Springs, contains the underground operations center for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), built during the Cold War to monitor North American airspace for missile launches and Soviet military aircraft. The Broadmoor hotel sits at the base of the mountain. It opened in 1918 and later expanded to include conference, sports, and spa buildings, as well as a luxury ski lodge. It is frequented by heads of state, prominent athletes and other celebrities.
Jonathan McGregor‘s poems have appeared in Ruminate Magazine and The Curator. He lives in Colorado Springs, CO, where he teaches writing and literature.
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