A Thing with Feathers
Yarrow Knittel
A Thing with Feathers
On cobalt-sheened wings, Hope
breezes into
fall’s last leafy tree.
Lemon-bright tail tips
down, up, down,
seeking balance.
Are you Emily’s bird?
Or did you flee Gerard
in his coal-deep nights?
I wish you wouldn’t steal
stray crumbs from
my sweatered shoulders,
my misaligned hair.
You shut your eyes
against wind.
You’ve mastered
time and distance.
Master me.
Janna (Yarrow) Knittel is the author of Real Work (Nodin, 2022), a finalist for the 2023 Minnesota Book Award in poetry, and the chapbook Fish & Wild Life (Finishing Line, 2018). In addition to several journals, Janna has also published poems in the following anthologies: North Coast Voices (Main Street Rag Publishing Company, forthcoming 2026); Blue, A Humana Obscura Anthology (2025); The Experiment Will Not Be Bound (Unbound Edition, 2023); Broad Wings, Long Legs: A Rookery of Heron Poems (North Star, 2024); and Waters Deep: A Great Lakes Anthology (Split Rock, 2018).