6°F. A patch of weeds furred with hoarfrost alerts me to a hole in the yard I didn’t know about: a burrow? An underground spring?
The view from my front porch every morning, in 140 or fewer characters
Monthly Archives: February 2008
Keening moans from the hole in the...
Keening moans from the hole in the big walnut tree. Then snarls: a squirrel rockets out, falls to a lower limb. The moans grow louder.
Tagged gray squirrel
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Fire engines wailing through the gap...
Fire engines wailing through the gap, air horns, the frantic melisma of ambulances. The wind blows snow against my cheek—pinpricks of cold.
Tagged fire, snowflakes, wind
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It’s snowing. A pileated woodpecker...
It’s snowing. A pileated woodpecker drums twice in Margaret’s yard: a resonant timpanum. Then sleet: rapid brushes on a taut skin.
Tagged pileated woodpecker
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A squirrel chased off the bird feeder...
A squirrel chased off the bird feeder races all the way to the dead elm in my yard, where it sits perfectly still for the next ten minutes.
Tagged gray squirrel
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Cold, clear, and still. Three dark...
Cold, clear, and still. Three dark silhouettes of deer half-running, half-dancing through the laurel with the sun-flooded powerline beyond.
Tagged deer, mountain laurel, powerline
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After three months of being written...
After three months of being written about daily, the world glimpsed from my porch seems more recondite than ever. Slow diatoms of snow.
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Siren, train whistle, a red-bellied...
Siren, train whistle, a red-bellied woodpecker ululating in the yard. It’s snowing. Squirrel tracks cross the porch in front of my chair.
Tagged gray squirrel, red-bellied woodpecker, train
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Late to rise, I get a faceful of sun...
Late to rise, I get a faceful of sun. Sparkles on the frosted snowpack only inhabit the glare between the shadows, like stars on strike.
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A jeering band of bluejays lands in...
A jeering band of bluejays lands in the locusts. Of human noise, nothing but distant jets. Long fingers of sunlight between the trees.
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