Orion – The Morning Porch

August 13, 2021 by Dave Bonta

First light. A meteor slices through Orion below the belt, and I flinch like a spectator at a pro wrestling match.

September 8, 2010 by Dave Bonta

Orion gets one leg above the trees before fading into the dawn. Inside, I rescue the cricket from a spider, put him out for the fourth time.

5:00 am; the stars are bright….

August 31, 2008 by Dave Bonta

5:00 am; the stars are bright. Orion straddles the ridge, and as I watch, a meteor streaks from his belt. A small, dark moth circles my face.

October 6, 2025
Crystal-clear. A Cooper’s hawk calls from the top of the tallest tree in the yard as sunrise reddens the western ridge.
October 6, 2024
Clear and cold, with more sky showing through the ridgetop trees. A raucous assembly of crows gives way to ravens—their resonant croaks.
October 6, 2023
Heavily overcast—what the weather app calls “light rain”—with a crow yelling in the distance and a yellow-bellied sapsucker mewing like a kitten.
October 6, 2022
Another woods-edge maple has gone red. Bouncing bet still blooms beside the porch, four months on.
October 6, 2021
Overcast at dawn. The silence is broken by the periodic splats of black walnuts. A barred owl’s single, round note.