17th and 5th

I crossed 5th avenue today just before sunset, Friday afternoon busy with holiday shoppers and angry taxi cabs as per usual, but halfway across the avenue I looked south to Greenwich village and a freedom tower spire at the end of the island, and the afternoon sun hit the high buildings with such a fire, and carved their shapes into such sharp contours, and I looked north to see a massive Empire State Building firm and steady on its block, and for a split second I lost my breath and remembered that I have never seen a more beautiful sight.

A piece of me perpetually lives on that crosswalk. The rest of me lives on blissfully, merely knowing it exists.