New York City, March 23, 2016

★★★★ The bleak white clouds glaring in the west belied the beneficence otherwise all around. Chirping sparrows moved in a mass along the ground like blown leaves. The four-year-old, who’d been concerned his pants wouldn’t be warm enough on the way to school, stripped off his puffy coat on the way back. He was delighted by the sight trio of motorcycles all parked together. A teen fished contraband out of the edge of a planter, behind the curtain of scaffold netting. A housefly was in the apartment, flying elusively. Dinner was over and it was still light outside the restaurant. The ice cream from the ice cream truck did not instantly melt.