I’m on my way to the gym before work when a young man steps out of a house ahead of me. Tall and skinny, he soon has a lit Marlboro in his hand. He then crosses Old Ford Road, enters Victoria Park, and takes the path by the pond. Some minutes later, he swerves out of the park, back onto my sidewalk.
When I was younger, I loved having a cigarette while walking and listening to a favourite song. In the absence of music, the pond offers that young man its Canadian geese, mute swans, coots and the waking fountain.