New York City, February 11, 2014

★★ Frozen and dried into rigid unchangeability. Hard ice and salt crust coexisted on the sidewalk. A dog lifted a leg to urinate against a mound of uncollected blue bags, one of a series of piles laid out for carefully separated non-collection. A woman was ascending the subway steps with silver ornaments in her boot heels and a fluffy black fur hoodie adding an imperious extra inch or two to the top of her head. The late breeze rattled stiff trash bags and the dead leaves clinging to one small tree.