New York City, August 28, 2013

★★ Morning was blue above, brown at the horizon over New Jersey. Wet patches on the pavement failed to evaporate; a plume of cigarette smoke hung out by its smoker on the sidewalk. Gloom seemed to advance across the office from the windows as the day went on. Thunder followed; a rain-soaked straggler arrived. Pigeons crumpled themselves into the recesses of the windows of the next building for shelter, the twitch of a wing showing that the mangling was only temporary and non-fatal. A mourning dove, sleek and indifferent, stayed out on a railing.