Rest
Alison Angell
even the wings of the smallest wood
warbler are not always spanned in flight,
the body against itself a capsule
for staying near the ground, the source
of the needle spun at the tree’s peak
where it rests when feathers have walked
the winds and caught the sun the day long,
and even nights when the air has blown
the clouds from its eyes and the stars
pierce the black like a needle’s head,
the moon itself steps back to watch
invisible threads moved by this long,
slow pull––lines so dark only those
in the dark can see
Alison Angell received a M.Litt in Creative Writing from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and currently resides in Brooklyn, where she works as a marketing director in publishing. Her work has appeared in the Washington Square Review, Off the Coast, and Heartwood.