Ron Winkler Poems

the olivemongers denied haggling over universes.

then the oranges nominated themselves.

with that they merely concealed a bitter youth.
...

silver plates were the bridle
of Sunday, out of the kitchen came
steaming entrées, out of love
napkins, nothing was as near to us
...

my parents frequently flipped open
the book of quiet conflict. usually
in such a case I'd go walk one of
my childhood's three dogs.
...

it all came down to the Samaritans of the nights that wanted to donate red sky
to the days. down to the ones who lay down to sleep covered in powdered asphalt.
down to Andromeda children, to the constabulary of henna-colored ladies,
...

for Tom Schulz

say over, say under, say city, say what
you've seen, say the silvered, mirror-glassed taxis,
...

New York is not the city that never sleeps. New York
is the city where practically nobody exists.
where consequently hardly anyone's afraid. New York is a mania
made of twenty-two automatic Brooklyns. of 2.2
...

a few images I got tangled in: heavenly bodies that radiated
significance almost performatively. aching gods,
their clenched fists red
...

the water was clear so clear.
the water was as clear as water that is clear.
as clear as water that to be clear appears.
just as if.
...

für Jeffrey McDaniel
wenn wir nicht schlafen können, zählen wir
die Rettungswagen, die an den Krankenwagen, in denen wir uns befinden,
vorüberfahren.

wenn wir nicht schlafen können, leuchten wir so
als wäre Dunkelheit Licht.

wenn wir nicht schlafen können, zählen wir die, die nicht
schlafen können.

wenn wir nicht schlafen können, stehen wir auf, um diesen Zustand
kultiviert auszugestalten
als vielleicht hohläugige Heideggerkeit.

wenn wir nicht schlafen können, beobachten wir
die gähnende Lokalpolizei unserer gähnenden Körper bei der Lektüre ihrer
zum Gähnen spannenden Hausmitteilungen, Dienstanweisungen.

wenn wir nicht schlafen können, dann rezitieren wir die zwei drei
vier Zeilen der zwei drei Gedichte, die wir kennen.

wenn wir nicht schlafen können, sind wir kleine Tretboote Potemkin.
...

for Jeffrey McDaniel
when we can't sleep we count
the emergency vehicles cutting off the ambulances
we're positioned in.

when we can't sleep we glow
as if the dark were light.

when we can't sleep we count the ones
who can't sleep.

when we can't sleep we stand up to flesh out
and cultivate this state of being
into perhaps hollow-eyed Heideggerism.

when we can't sleep we monitor
the yawning local police of our yawning bodies by the reading of their
yawn-inspiring internal memos and standing orders.

when we can't sleep we recite the two three
four lines of the two three poems that we know.

when we can't sleep we're little Paddleship Potemkins.
...