New York City, May 16, 2017

★★★★★ People sat out on their east-facing balconies. The warmth was not quite manifest under the scattered morning light, but the anticipation was there. There were shorts out in late morning, a sleeveless undershirt, a romper, a shirtdress. A man sat outside a building with his sleeves turned back to show purple inner cuffs. Another man wore a short-brimmed straw hat. Even into the afternoon, though, the general public held back, wary after the long chilly days, their summer dresses and t-shirts chaperoned by cardigans and jean jackets. Union Square smelled a little bit like sweat and a little bit like greenery. Some gray gathered in the west, then pulled apart in glowing furrows, which expanded into blue stripes. Out on the engineered grass roof at Lincoln Center, some mushrooms had sprouted. The clouds slid overhead, their ranks breaking up, their color now a blurry white and silver. The children ran in circles playing tag one-on-one, the younger in his socks on the grass, the elder still in shoes.