This is a picture I did not take
of a woman with her eyes closed in Chinatown, her face caught by a slant
of sunlight cutting through the afternoon's fog and the shadows of the
street. She had the face of an actress; her beauty striking, memorable,
and she held herself regally, her chin lifting up toward the sun. She was
perfectly still, and sat in a wheelchair, pedestrians swirling past her.
She was eleganty dressed; a white jacket, white pants and white shoes. The
upper half of her body was adult-sized, but her legs were shortened, and
they twisted on themselves and ended in small, child-sized feet.
I've never seen such dignity.