New York City, April 17, 2016

★★★★★ A woman in suede boots trooped up the avenue past the urgent care center, at an hour either late or early for her pink wispy dress. It was certainly too early for the pharmacy in the 24-hour drugstore to be open. A man holding a low lawn chair, accompanying a boy in baseball pants and a jacket, hailed a cab. Indoors, lines of light moved slowly over the ceiling through the blinds. Birds were definitely singing. People wore thin cardigans out on the roof deck across the way. The hours went by slowly and there was still light. There was still light enough to go out in, when going out felt possible. Couples were hand in hand or moving with arms draped over one another. A young couple kissed on the corner of Broadway, then kissed again. The warm weather had come up so suddenly, no one seemed to have sorted out the right configurations of long things and short, layers and bareness. A little boy drew his bow and rubber-cup-tipped arrow on the Lincoln Center plaza, and the man walking ahead of him looked back and shook his head. White daffodils were backlit with sun bouncing off glass to the east; a rainbow glanced off someone’s upper chest.