Three things I saw today:

An albino pigeon. He looked like a combo of my two favorite birds---the pigeon and seagull. You can imagine I did not sidle up to him on the sidewalk. I'm still skirting.

Water falling far, in the low-angled evening light off the bridge. I could see each individual drop fall from so far up that they seemed in slow motion. It was as if a woman on the bridge was wearing a necklace of golden beads that broke. The beads fell slowly, shining, then turned to water when they hit the sidewalk.

A floating crane. From my office's lunchroom, we can see all the way downtown. Clouds were so low today that the crane on the top of the new World Trade Center pushed above a wide white swath of sky by itself, and floated surreally above the City.

There are also the three flowers that have survived my bouquet purge and are now so dried out they seem eternally alive. They are orange and pink and yellow---the colours of sherbet. The sun waking an empty park each morning and the one dog-walker there to see it come. The girl scampering up the subway steps to get to the fresh air and light again. That's me.

Enjoy the puddles of snow while they last; I'm celebrating Spring's Eve tonight.