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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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firefly

July 6, 2025 by Dave Bonta

A cool and humid sunrise, with the silence of a long holiday weekend continuing to linger. The buzz of a hummingbird. A firefly goes past with his unlit lantern.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags firefly, ruby-throated hummingbird
July 17, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Another phantom shower, existing only on the weather app. A firefly wanders past, looking for a walnut leaf to spend the day under.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, firefly, rain 1 Comment
May 29, 2013 by Dave Bonta

It’s hot. A firefly lands on the shady side of the white railing, antennae moving rapidly as if assessing a new, poor substitute for night.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags firefly
July 14, 2011 by Dave Bonta

A helicopter alone in the clear sky: the mingled notes of its motor, high and low. A firefly sails past, inner wings glowing in the sun.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags firefly, helicopter 4 Comments
June 20, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Overcast and cold. A firefly floats past the porch with his abdomen pointing down, lamp at the ready for any unscheduled onset of darkness.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags firefly

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On This Day

  • April 23, 2025
    A smear of sun, strong enough to cast thin shadows. Four white-throated sparrows trade variations of the same song like old-time fiddlers, trying slightly different…
  • April 23, 2024
    The sun climbs from clarity into murk. Feeling insufficiently caffeinated, I watch the tulip tree’s tall, green torch fade to chartreuse.
  • April 23, 2023
    Cool and damp at sunrise. A small cottontail grazes at the woods’ edge: a salad of tiny leaves. A gnatcatcher’s soft soliloquy.
  • April 23, 2022
    A 30-second rain. I count nine shades of green, all circled by a cardinal in his flame-colored cap. The daffodils once again stand erect.
  • April 23, 2021
    Bright sun. High in the tulip tree, among the shining leaf nubbins, two robins meet for combat and tumble to the ground.

See all...

Related book

Cover of Ice Mountain with a linocut of a big ridgetop tree.

What I do after I sit on the porch. One winter and spring's daily walks distilled into short poems with linocut illustrations by Beth Adams.

Header image: detail from Paper Garden by Clive Hicks-Jenkins (used by permission)

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