New York City, October 14, 2012

★★★★★ Discouraging morning clouds fell away; the angel of the Lord laid aside his flaming sword and reopened the gates of Eden. Air flowed between cool sunshine and balmy shade. In the courtyard, the black infinity pool had been lowered into the finite, so the rounded river stones boxed inside it stood out pale above the waterline, like cobbles in a genuine spillway. Its sideways floodlights lay two-thirds exposed, flecked with the green of oxidation, little live chemical reactions. House sparrows flitted in over the stone wall, splashed in the water. Male and female, ink-droplet breast and dun-striped eye. The breeze slipped its way through hair and moved over the nerves of the scalp. All up the tower’s sheer, mirrored facade were the dark bars of windows tipped out and open to let the breeze inside. The breeze tossed the bamboo, played through the seed heads of the ornamental grass. Up the street and around the corner, the playground was full of children, lining up for a turn at the swings, lining up to swing from the ring bridge. Come mid-July, expect to see a whole batch of new ones.