Issue Twenty - Summer 2012

Prague

By Marina Rubin

To the girl in a striped dress
standing by the side of the road
like a ladybug with painted lips
as trucks trumpet and honk

to the hollow-eyed girl who counts the minutes
as happy travelers e-mail home
about golden cities and foreign gods,
the lonely planet keeps turning

to the girl with legs made of jell-o
who marches up the telescope tower
thinking this is the beginning of the way out
and that beauty will change the world

to the girl who laughs like a cello,
dancing on the curb of a fountain,
convinced that she must live in a moment,
forgetting that there is a tomorrow

to the girl who sits on the bench
in the Old Town Square
and watches the horses piss

Girls…don’t worry,
scrape your toes and buy souvenirs,
stroll on the bridge and sit in for a portrait,
the knight will come,
just as quietly as the monster

Copyright Rubin 2012

Marina Rubin 's first chapbook Ode to Hotels came out in 2002, followed by Once in 2004 and Logic in 2007. Her work had appeared in hundreds of magazines including 13th Warrior Review, Asheville Poetry Review, Dos Passos Review, 5AM, Nano Fiction, Coal City, Green Hills Literary Lantern, Jewish Currents, Lillith, Pearl, Poet Lore, Skidrow Penthouse, The Portland Review, The Worcester Review and many more. She is an associate editor of Mudfish. She has been nominated for the Pushcart. She lives in New York where she works as a headhunter on Wall Street while writing her fourth book, a collection of flash fiction stories. Her website is www.marinarubin.com.

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