feathers (another reason to love new york)

I was passing through Union Square this afternoon, on the way back from For Bread Alone, having detoured to do some errands and because I am not one to pass up the opportunity of one-dollar cups of apple cider at the Greenmarket. As I approached the southern end of the square I realized the large crowd of people to my right were not, in fact, engaging in a political protest: they were having a massive pillowfight. There appeared to be at least two hundred of them, mostly armed with actual feather pillows, the kind that burst open on impact and scatter their contents all around. The air above was filled with feathers transfixed in the sunshine, and tufts piled up atop the grimy ice lingering in the gutters at 14th street. There was still down settling on my shoulders two blocks south, while I browsed the outdoor shelves at the Strand.