New York City, February 20, 2017

★★★★ Sunrise brought a bright smooth spectrum to the cloudless sky. The eerie tropical warmth was off the atmosphere; it was cool and the coolness was of a piece with the clarity. Reflective beads in the yellow thermoplastic marking on the roadway glimmered through a layer of caked-on dirt. Deep shadow and bright highlights made rustic upper-story stonework look too authentically rough-hewn to be up where it was. A legion of figures helmed in blazing light advanced uptown in irregular order. A step sidways into the shade brought down a curtain that seemed to muffle the sound along with the sight. Once the sun had passed its peak, the air and the light took on the character of autumn. The synthetic fibers in the dark jackets of the police shone. An officer cautioned sun-dazed marchers not to trip on the feet of the barricades. Further down the street, where the rally was thicker, the crowd was deep in shadow. High in the distance the cranes atop unfinished ultraluxury apartments glittered. The crowd in its jacketed enthusiasm felt suddenly like the crowd on the way into a college stadium, with the whole game yet to go.