Monday, October 5

From halfway up the block, a slender stream runs down Forest Avenue. The utilities authority has placed an orange traffic barrel at the source, as if to say "yes, we know," and yet they’ve allowed the leak to persist for over a month. It's wasteful, of course, but I also find this clear little stream beautiful. 

It’s like a pop-up water feature. An ephemeral waterway, caressing the curb and ferrying locust leaves down to the intersection where they pool in a damp amber mat. I stop for a while and stare, mesmerized. It's the same feeling I get from watching a fire. Flickering flames and moving water. There is so much artifice in the world, but it’s the basic elements that always draw us in.