New York City, January 26, 2017

★★★ This version of the returning morning darkness was choppy clouds with luminous gouges in them. Rain began the moment the five-year-old stepped out the door. The drops landed so lightly at first that puddled urine held its shape and color on the dampening sidewalk. The rain developed into a full shower and then went away. The dwindling puddles mirrored blue sky and sunstruck brick. People put tobacco and marijuana smoke on the air. A woman in a vivid red puffy jacket stood in a lunging pose across the sidewalk, stooping and flexing to do something with an oversized expensive baby stroller, the whole arrangement looking in the intense light like a Jeff Koons sculpture left there to block pedestrians.