THE LEAVES HAD come forth, even on the slow-starting honey locust, and they seemed to be expanding and deepening from yellow to green before the eye as the minutes went by. The sick child coughed; the bright-robed bishop on the livestream talked of shadow and light; clouds somewhere out of view made the sun fade and swell again. More new lacy green stood over the sidewalk along the park’s edge. People in heavy coats huddled around picnic tables in the sun. One of the robins dotting the lawn faced into the breeze, its stray feathers fluttering. Dandelions, short-stalked, lay as close as buttons to the lawn. A battery of long-lensed cameras surrounded a hooded warbler on two sides as it flitted up and down in low growth on a hillside, flashing brilliant gold and velvet black. Mats of algae clogged the top of a waterfall.
