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Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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jet

June 10, 2020 by Dave Bonta

Humidity thick as wool. Above the buzz of hummingbird dogfights, a distant roar of military jets, hopefully just on training runs.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags jet, ruby-throated hummingbird
June 10, 2020 by Dave Bonta

Humidity thick as wool. Above the buzz of hummingbird dogfights, a distant roar of military jets, hopefully just on training runs.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags jet, ruby-throated hummingbird 1 Comment
April 6, 2020 by Dave Bonta

Two faded contrails in an otherwise clear sky. A cardinal sings his spring song, which bears a very strong resemblance to his winter song.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags cardinal, jet
March 17, 2020 by Dave Bonta

In the fog and mizzle, swelling yellow-green lilac buds are the brightest thing. A single jet goes over in all the time I sit outside.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags fog, jet, lilac, rain
March 15, 2020 by Dave Bonta

Bright sun. The damp ground glistens like a salamander. A jet goes over—the first I’ve heard in a while.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags jet
February 21, 2020 by Dave Bonta

A jet drags a vestigial contrail through the treetops, its roar far behind in the great blue bell which, by cliché, this clarity resembles.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags jet
January 12, 2020 by Dave Bonta

A yellow gash appears in the clouds to the east and heals up again. The cardinal attacks his reflection. Military jets howl over, unseen.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags cardinal, clouds, jet
December 26, 2019 by Dave Bonta

A white-breasted nuthatch is barely audible over the whine of tires from the interstate. Two jet contrails form an X just above the sun.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags I-99, jet, white-breasted nuthatch
April 24, 2019 by Dave Bonta

The fluttery way a Cooper’s hawk flies, skimming the treetops. Later, a jet goes the same way, its contrail just the briefest I and I.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Cooper's hawk, jet
December 19, 2018 by Dave Bonta

A gray squirrel runs along the gray road bearing a freshly dug-up walnut. High in the blue, a jet’s contrail is short enough to be a tail.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, gray squirrel, jet
April 11, 2018 by Dave Bonta

The creek has shrunk to a slow procession of vowels, monotonous as any interior monologue. From above the clouds, the rumble of a jet.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags jet, stream
March 25, 2018 by Dave Bonta

Cold as a well under a deep blue sky torn by the distant roar of military jets. The morning singers carry on: cardinal, song sparrow, robin.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American robin, cardinal, jet, song sparrow
February 5, 2018 by Dave Bonta

The strong sun turns snow cascading from branches into gauze. In the deep blue sky, a distant jet, and the harsh, wild cries of a raven.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags jet, raven, snow
January 1, 2018 by Dave Bonta

Trees and dead weeds alike have grown a fine fur of hoarfrost. There’s no human noise for nearly ten minutes. Then a distant military jet.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags hoarfrost, jet
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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

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

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