New York City, April 21, 2013

★★★★ The morning looked floodlit. A couple passed with their runners’ bibs flapping in the breeze. People were facing the chill in everything from scarves to a short-sleeved sportshirt, tucked in. Two men — or maybe one man twice, coming and going — had chosen the blue and greenish yellow of a Boston Marathon jacket. In the evening, the river was glassy under pearl sky; a green willow, framed under the elevated highway and between buildings, swayed southward against the bright water.