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Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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ichneumon

August 4, 2016 by Dave Bonta

The wild garlic has all gone to seed, heads bowed with the weight of their descendants. A tiny ichneumon patrols the porch, wings a-quiver.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags ichneumon, wild garlic
September 18, 2014 by Dave Bonta

A black ichneumon wasp climbs the white porch column, wings twitching like an ill-fitting suit. The lawnmower sound of a propeller plane.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags ichneumon, plane 1 Comment
May 16, 2013 by Dave Bonta

Sunny and hot. A small ichneumon wasp on the shady side of a column actually stops vibrating for a few seconds and is completely still.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags ichneumon 1 Comment
July 18, 2012 by Dave Bonta

Distant thunder. A black ichneumon wasp walks circles on the porch floor, its wings flickering jerkily like images in a silent film.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags ichneumon, thunderstorm 1 Comment
July 7, 2011 by Dave Bonta

It’s hot. A black ichneumon wasp lands on the white porch ceiling and walks into the dark cave of a knothole, translucent wings twitching.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags ichneumon 3 Comments
June 2, 2010 by Dave Bonta

A small ichneumon wasp alights on a porch post, tapping and listening for signs of life. Up in the woods, a deer’s explosive snort.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags deer, ichneumon

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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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