The Morning Porch

January 3, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Hard rain beginning to ease by late morning. Chirps and twitters become audible. The last patches of snow line the road like litter.

August 9, 2025
Clear and cold at dawn. The nearly full moon gutters among the trees. A screech owl trills with a rising intonation, which feels like some kind of omen.
August 9, 2024
Steady rain with a bit of a breeze—the remains of a hurricane that got the wind knocked out of her and lost her eye. At 7:39 the Carolina wren finally pipes up.
August 9, 2023
Clear and cool at sunrise. A phoebe’s bill snaps on a slow cranefly. From high overhead, the tolling of a bell soon turns into raven croaks.
August 9, 2021
Sunny and humid. The electric whine of annual cicadas ebbs and flows. A hummingbird flies into the forest’s wall of leaves at top speed.
August 9, 2015
Workmen up at the other house: the whine of an annual cicada in the trees alternates with an actual electric saw.