Dream of The Future

Ayler Roskos’ Dream of the Future     Poet and essayist Ayler Roskos (28 November 1996 – 29 October 2025), an active member of the NJ poetry community and as a disability rights activist, passed away a month shy of his 29th birthday. Ayler had only been writing poetry for about a year and a half, beginning soon after his older brother Jesse Windle’s death at age 30 in late June 2024, before he too passed away. Both Ayler and his brother had Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), a neuromuscular disorder resulting in progressive muscle degeneration and weakness.   I first became aware of Ayler and his poetry by way of the 2024 edition of Big Hammer #23, the annual 150-200 page 8.5” x 11” perfectly bound NJ poetry and art magazine published by Iniquity Press/Vendetta Books. He would go on to produce sensitive and informed works in pamphlets & broadsides that resulted in this small, but formidable collection of poems and political tracts, entitled Dream of the Future, for which this posthumous collection of his writings is named. Clear signs throughout this work show that Ayler was a poet tuned-in to what the second Trump presidency was doing to worsen the lives of most Americans; especially, people with disabilities. Ayler’s collection of poems and prose demonstrate plainspoken embodied concern over the 2025 DOGE cuts, ICE/CBP actions, poverty, and disability rights. His art mirrors the fragile strength of the Disability Community at large, its anger and protest over the president’s institutional cut-backs during this same period.