January 2019

Thursday January 31, 2019

Dave Bonta January 31, 2019

Through my thick hat I can hear wind hissing in the pines, the moan of an amorous squirrel, a tree popping from the cold—loud as a gunshot.

Dave Bonta January 30, 2019 1

Take one polar vortex. Add westerly winds, seasoned lightly with snow. Stir in some birds and trees. Heat with a star 93 million miles away.

Dave Bonta January 29, 2019

Another snowfall. The small hole in the yard that leads to an underground stream remains open, like a breathing hole for seals in sea ice.

Dave Bonta January 28, 2019

The fast scrabbling of claws on black locust bark: another squirrel’s in heat. Dead grass blades along the stream are rococo with hoarfrost.

Dave Bonta January 27, 2019 2

Trees at the woods’ edge with their branches out to catch all the light they can—or in this case, snow. A pileated woodpecker’s flaming cap.

Dave Bonta January 26, 2019 2

From under the house, rabbit tracks encircling a half-eaten raspberry cane, raccoon tracks going straight to the stream—muddy on the return.

Dave Bonta January 25, 2019

The wind raises snow from the ground like a necromancer. Basking in the sun’s feeble heat, I watch the six-spoked wheels settle on my coat.

Dave Bonta January 24, 2019

Yesterday it was below freezing and rained; now it’s above freezing and snow is coming down: dilettantish at first, then in a mad dance.

Dave Bonta January 23, 2019

A high-pitched train horn. The yammering of a red-bellied woodpecker. Almost imperceptibly, rain begins to tap on the snowpack’s icy lid.

Dave Bonta January 22, 2019 1

Silent and glittery. Squirrels bound over the icy crust, passing between the trees’ long, skinny shadows like loom shuttles.