In Between Seasons

It's that neither here nor there time of year when it's no longer fully winter but not yet quite spring. Last night brought a sudden flurry of snow, this morning was bright, cool and sunny, and it was almost warm as I walked into school. There were workmen in a crane snipping stray branches from a tree, sailors on park benches wearing buttoned-up pea coats and peaked hats, When a Man Loves a Woman was coming to an end at the deserted outdoor ice rink, and a woman in sunglasses sipped hot coffee on the street, a fur-lined hood pulled tight around her head.