New York City, October 30, 2014

★★★★ Orderly, clean-looking cumulus drifted by. The breeze was chilly but worth letting in the window. All but one of the honeylocusts on the block had gone completely yellow. Here was fall in its belated fullness. Strobe flashes came from the glass of a turning car or a balcony door swinging. Knots of teens in their hoodies filled the wide sidewalk. An NYPD van watched them from near the crosswalk, windows open, the passenger-side cop smoking a cigarette.