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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

The Morning Porch
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horsefly

July 22, 2015 by Dave Bonta

A rare fine day—everything’s so clear, so bright! An enormous horsefly lands on my leg and for a long moment I study the blade in its mouth.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags horsefly
July 20, 2012 by Dave Bonta

A deer leaps and twists in the tall grass to elude a fly, his damp pelt pale as a salmon, hoarse breathing just audible above the rain.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags horsefly, rain, white-tailed deer 2 Comments
July 17, 2012 by Dave Bonta

An enormous horsefly patrols the porch railing, gray and golden hairs shining in the sun. The faint croaks of a raven somewhere to the west.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags horsefly, raven
August 4, 2011 by Dave Bonta

From the paper mill, the mournful note of the Protestant call to work. I watch an enormous horse-fly on the porch ceiling, ready to sprint.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags factory whistle, horsefly 1 Comment
August 19, 2009 by Dave Bonta

A horse fly—rare visitor—rides my parents’ car down the road, then follows me onto the porch. It takes two flyswatter blows to do her in.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags horsefly

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On This Day

  • 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.

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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