New York City, April 19, 2015

★★★★ The warmth of the day before had backed off — spring was not going fully sweaty yet, not at all. Pictures that had sat around unhung for months and months suddenly could be understood to need nothing but a half-minute’s attention with a hammer. There was a cool breeze in the streets, and scooters and strollers and scooters and strollers and scooters. Pear trees in bloom caught and scattered the light. A man with a leather or leatherette jacket weaved hastily through the crowd to catch up with a little girl, also wearing a leatherish jacket, speeding ahead on a pink scooter. Star magnolia blossoms, petals drooping, bobbed in Verdi Square. From the corner of 72nd Street, the pear flowers and the Ansonia were a single off-white Beaux-Arts mass.