I shred napkins between my fingers. When they are in a polite pile, I scatter them slowly onto the

diner’s faux quartz countertop. Outside the lights change at the intersection where Seventh

Avenue crosses Broadway. Earlier it was warmer and there was rain, it seems, by the puddles of

still water where lights reflect in a noiseless cacophony. After a while, the ground connotes the

northern lights – but in the air, it is a kaleidoscope. The shallow collections of water begin to fog

over with ice or turn black and invisible. Everyone is tuckered indoors, but I leave the warm shell

of the diner and walk in the center lane north with no particular direction. Aren’t we all during

transit?

 

I flip up the collar on my jacket, the wind has changed directions. I am consciously tiptoeing, a

shuffle might Wake an evening otherwise slumbering in such luminescence. Beyond, a small

grocery store there are people

Braving the cold selling stragglers milk and bread. An old bearded man carries out-of-season

Peaches to the check out, we make eye contact and he winks, or a drop fell into my eye.

 

By the time I make it home, it’s almost morning. As I lock the door behind me

I turn to the window and see it’s started to flurry.

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