What the city smells like at 5am

There’s this moment just before the bakeries open and after the last revelers have staggered home—the pavement gives off a wet stone smell, like it's exhaling something it held all night. I stood outside the hotel this morning and watched a delivery truck idle, and it occurred to me that I've been a witness to these small hours for so long I've started to confuse my own presence with the air. Not sad, exactly. Just here, holding space for a city that's already forgetting itself.