New York City, October 19, 2016

★ Sun was in the limbs of the far side of the sycamore, so they shone in bright segments through the still-shaded nearer crown. The bank clock above the trees said 71 as parents fresh-scattered from the school dropoff reconverged on the subway. Drivers had their visors down heading crosstown into the glare. By midday the sky was a weak and non-autumnal blue. Leaves had kept falling in the hot light, through the hot air. The 1 train car with the broken air conditioning could not have been as sweltering as it would have been in August, but sweating stoically without changing cars was too stupid a thing to contemplate.