What City Parks are For

This morning on my walk to the subway, I walked as I always do past this wretched little "park" that consists of an awkward triangle where three streets intersect. There's almost nothing there except for some benches a few trees and a fountain that doesn't work, and it's mostly used as a latrine by local dogs and homeless people.

But as a I walked by this morning, a breeze came up (brrrr) and there was a sound... the wind went ssshhhhhhhhhhhhhh as it blew through the scrawny, bare trees, making that wonderful sound that I recognize from sawgrass on the lake in Florida, and creekside liveoaks from camp in North Carolina, and pines around Tahoe, and birch copses in the farmland outside of Syracuse.