The Morning Porch » cats

Rusty things: the wail of a cat in...

Dave Bonta — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 13:17:38 +0000

Rusty things: the wail of a cat in heat, a squirrel’s slow scold, the cry of a jay, and the black cherry leaves fading to a coppery red.

Dave Bonta — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:31:24 +0000

A meadow vole takes an after-death journey into the forest in the jaws of a cat, who holds her head high for once and does not slink.

Dave Bonta — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 12:38:27 +0000

A catbird scolds a feral cat: harsh, descending Nos. Slick with dew, the lanceolate leaves of goldenrod shimmer in the sun like green fish.

Dave Bonta — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 13:55:11 +0000

Dead bracken leaf: a sun-bleached carcass. A feral cat pads down the road undetected by squirrels, its sodden gray coat the color of gravel.

Dave Bonta — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 14:45:57 +0000

Four gray squirrels interrupt their chasing to scold the feral cat—a Two Minutes’ Hate. In the corner of my eye, the zip of a winter wren.

Dave Bonta — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 14:39:44 +0000

On the flattened grass where snow has sat for months, the gray disk of an old hornet nest. The feral cat presses her belly fur to the earth.

Dave Bonta — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:19:31 +0000

Fine snow blurs the edges of the porch. The feral cat has walked in her own footsteps through the garden, a clear print in each old crater.

Dave Bonta — Fri, 28 May 2010 11:24:15 +0000

The first four peonies burst their buds in the night and open to a sky of hazy pink. From under the house, a cat’s hollow cough.

Dave Bonta — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:41:02 +0000

My meditative sit is spoiled by the incessant scolding of a squirrel, set off by a feral tabby. Now I know why Nanzen killed the cat.

Dave Bonta — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:23:44 +0000

A half-grown barn cat crawls out from under the house, gray and bedraggled as a clump of drier lint. One jay rasping at the top of a locust.