Monday in the park

There was a couple in the park Monday trying to break up. I tried not to look or listen or appear visible in the slightest, but that is what I do, so I saw what was going on, what was being negotiated. Over by the big tree a family was spread out on some blankets with a picnic lunch and a deck of cards and a fat-tired bicycle leaning against the trunk having a nap. Their kids and a couple of the kids' friends from the looks of it, ran and ran and raced up and down the little hill by the flower beds, overcome by just the joy of being there on the grass in the sunny, warmish morning. I took their picture.
The couple was down on the overlook, not speaking to each other, not looking out at the milk chocolate Hudson oozing by, not moving. I took a picture of the highway below with a little of the bike trail and the river, but the highway had no cars on it, there wasn't a bike or a walker on the trail and the river (I came up here to shoot some boats floating) was as empty as a winter day.
I deleted the picture and watched as the couple left the overlook and walked up the stairs, one on the far left and one on the far right, they made it look rehearsed.
I went down to the old auto entrance, the one they used to use back in the 1930's when Ft. Tryon park was a place to go to exercise your car, a Sunday drive destination far from the downtown congestion. It still is, but you can't use the old entrance, it's too narrow for today's "wider is better" cars. There was an old woman and her aide sitting on the hidden bench, looking out at the river and it's holiday emptiness.
When I got back up to the entrance the couple was still there, not having crossed the line, still a couple of lovers as long as they were in the confines of the park. I walked past them, not looking, not listening, trying to be as invisible as a May morning breeze. I think they took me as a signal because just as I crossed the entrance line the two women embraced stiffly, one kissed the other's cheek and received no kiss in return, then they parted. Each looking determined, I thought, each stepping towards other overlooks.