The Morning Porch

May 25, 2024May 6, 2012 by Dave Bonta

Cloudy and cool. The small black ants on the peony buds move sluggishly as lovers stunned by charismatic moons.

October 20, 2025
Wind and rain at dawn. Half an hour before sunrise, a great twittering erupts from the meadow as hundreds of white-throated sparrows, sheltering deep in the goldenrod, begin to awaken.
October 20, 2024
Patches of frost in the yard. The old lilac at the woods’ edge has chosen this time to partially re-leaf after the summer’s drought: half-sized, bright green leaves against the thinning trees.
October 20, 2023
Between dawn and sunrise, a small rainstorm’s pleasant susurration drowns out everything else. As it eases, a Carolina wren takes over, caroling in a minor key.
October 20, 2022
Dawn brings a chittering of sparrows from the meadow. It’s cold. Frost edges the periwinkle leaves.
October 20, 2021
Sunrise inches forward, chirp by chirp: towhee, white-throated sparrow. A rabbit gazes at me from the end of the porch with eyes dark as cisterns.