New York City, November 29, 2012

★★★ Dawn threw a wall of pink onto the face of the apartment tower across the way; sunset found a way to throw pink the same place, on the bounce. Between, there was blue sky, with a sort of lilac haze behind the uptown skyline. The safety-orange of construction signs popped in the low flood of sunlight. In the schoolyard, the last colorless leaves on the sycamores shook stiffly in the breeze. The flags of the city and the Parks Department unfurled from their guy wires, flapped northward for a while, then fell back down. The gentle gust was not quite enough to lift the United States flag or the POW flag trapped under it, at the top of the pole. Then a new gust came, and the Stars and Stripes briefly roused itself.