Omniscient

by | Jul 23, 2026

An impressionist painting with a white waterfall cascading down the middle as animals swim up its current. There are animals drinking from a pool of water at the bottom of the painting. There's a bright red mill to the left of the waterfall, while a large green tree is to the right. A city skyline can be seen in the background behind the waterfall and mill.

“The Bewitched Mill” (1913), Franz Marc, Oil on Canvas. Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.

The river hides its openings
in the marsh.
In this, it forces
me to see.

I paddle up the channel.
The wind blows off my hood.
The tree ahead is leafless.

The bird sees

me before I knew I had

been seen.

I am stuck between the shelf
of grass and mud and dirt
and that white flash
of feathers.
I am stuck in the eyes that leave
the branch and loom over me.

I paddle backwards and
jam myself against the shore.
And yet the river sends me
back to the stream,
and how slow had I been moving,

you, the river, you
always knew
I would need help
turning around,
you, the eagle, you
flew up and swept
me back, like I wasn’t
ready, like this is how
we have to learn to
first fly, this turn to the
wind, this knowing now after
the push, this freedom
felt to float
along the tide.
Katie Mihalek

Katie Mihalek

Publab Fellow 2026

Katie Mihalek is a poet based between Massachusetts and Rhode Island. She holds an MS in medical sciences from Boston University and an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College, and is currently pursuing a PhD in English and creative writing at University of Rhode Island. She is the poetry editor for Fork Apple Press. She is the author of the chapbook Aurora Uteralis (Finishing Line Press, 2024), and her work can be found in Frontier, TIMBER, Sheila-Na-Gig, Barnstorm, and others.