RON WINKLER

February Jinks
    translated from the German by Rodney Nelson

I
again you know it all and so are able
to point out to me that my palsy is just
a common efflorescence of that month, not
beautiful to be sure yet rather useful
when applied as an antithesis to gauge
the extent of summer.

II
one should have, you add with tart concern, well-
sharpened sled runners in every instance
to make it over this long-winded cold stretch,
maybe do two deep knee bends qd as well,
commonly recommended for the so-called
Conditio beneath one’s carefully re-
knitted skin
(or did you say Condition?).

III
we’d have known snow to be a suffix as a rule
(staged into a white-flake trellis)—

therefore unsounded and easy to slur. furthermore,
that the main noun would read weather.

IIII
people are said to be nearest to
the universe this month, as if in
the sky-fall of many galaxies:
unplumbable in depth,
duration (transcendence),
and luminosity.
d’accord, I think, until I pick
up on the grandiose way that
you’re laughing about it.