New York City, September 4, 2017

★★★★★ From the very first glimpse of the glow coming in around the blinds, the light looked good. The texture of the asphalt glittered wetly at the edges of the fast-receding puddles. If the sidewalk crowd was sparse, it was augmented by sharp-cut shadows and bright reflections on the glass and water. Knees and shoulders were out again. Helicopters gleamed like beetles. The neighboring roof deck lay in shadow but a couple squeezed together on a chaise anyway. A spot of sun glowed on the back of a hanging traffic sign; glazed bricks shone between third-floor windows of an ugly building; roof ducts and high windows flared. Uptown, high behind one shoulder, a white cloud moved against the blue, bright and small and solitary as the moon.