New York City, August 4, 2016

★★★★★ The clouds were fat and bright. The walk from the late and express-routed 1 train back up to the office was a little sweaty in the open expanses around 14th Street. A thick gray cloud moved overhead toward midday, but it proved to be of no significance. Little air currents moved among the people on the sidewalks, and a pleasant warmth soaked in during the moments when the air stilled. Smells were discrete and legible: pad Thai, and there was the cart right across the street. Two men sat on Siamese pipes flanking a clothing store entrance. Once again the light fled the streets by rush hour, but a secondhand glow came down from above. A stack of bright pink strokes, slightly downward-arching, marked the sunset, then gradually faded to dull purple, from top to bottom.