Thursday May 15, 2008

Cloudy and cool. A tanager’s plucked string; no glimpse of scarlet. Where are they off to, the hummingbirds that keep zooming past my porch?

On this date

Dawn. A bat zig-zags high over the meadow en route to its roost as the few clouds turn pink. …

Cloudy and cool. Cricket trills and ticks are joined by chipmunk tocks. A tulip tree leaf sails in wide circles with its stem for a rudder. …

Even hanging upside-down from a Canada thistle and stuffing her beak with thistledown, the goldfinch never stops chittering. …

Clear and cold. In their communal tent, the caterpillars lie still as mummies in a tomb—gray forms already in their burial wrappings. …

Dozens of dragonflies silhouetted against the sky appear and disappear in the dawn fog. The trees still drip from a storm in the wee hours. …

A mosquito creeps across my shirt, an inchworm measures my jeans, and a hummingbird circles my head: this morning, I'm doomed to disappoint. …

The woods' edge is at the base of a hill; all I see of the doe foraging under the trees are delicate legs and the spinning flag of her tail. …

The Morning Porch