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Mary Kay Rummel
Rainy Day Legs

love the furious sea and field green adagios  
break into swallow song trill, the bees prayer
wander in too much or too little
seize the day but love night.

In hospital pale invalids
next to tanned doctors
wiggle with four kinds of longing.

Humble grass readers
stationary travelers
long to float
anchored by hurting feet,

walk to Compostella
kneel at Loretta
blessed by the Black Madonna;

wear down the cobblestones of Prague
follow street side hawkers
selling Dvorak and Mozart like peanuts
haunt the old Jewish quarters;

escape from one prison to the next
paddle a green river
ride the escalator to heaven;

know that saints live on the rooftops
but God is down below;

trudge the Charles Bridge, where violins keen
an old man grinds a hurdy-gurdy.

Hidden under a kaleidoscope of umbrellas
legs vibrate like aerials in the rain
read the crossing of waters
live on the limen.





Mary Kay Rummel's sixth book of poetry, "What's Left Is The Singing," has just been published by Blue Light Press in San Francisco. "Love in the End," has also been published in recent years by Bright Hill Press in New York. She has been thinking lately about her history with small presses-how they have been her life-line as a poet, how essential they are, how editors are driven by dedication, how each one has its own spirit, and how a community grows up around them. See www.marykayrummel.com for more information.


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