The Morning Porch

August 19, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Crystal-clear and cold: autumn’s first visit. A breeze sorting through the walnut leaves, a few of which are already yellow.

August 15, 2025
Half a moon alone in the sky. A silent catbird flies into the half-dead lilac. Off through the forest, blinding fragments of the sun.
August 15, 2024
Cool and still, with sunlight at half strength due to atmospheric haze—smoke from Canada’s burning forests. A wood pewee’s bluesy melisma.
August 15, 2023
Leaves glistening with last night’s rain. A distant raven. The puttering of a hummingbird’s small motor.
August 15, 2022
Drizzle thickening now and then into proper rain. The bracken in my yard glows in all the colors of decline and fall.
August 15, 2021
Ten minutes before first light, the first distant, barking dog. Ten minutes before that, a barred owl’s cackle.