Sunning Streets

Photography by Nina Miller

"The empty street felt very human, sunning itself in the afternoon light. The buildings progress in age to show the passage of time."
Nina Miller is an Indian-American physician, fencer, and creative. Her hybrid work can be found in Cutbow Quarterly and Raw Lit, her prose and poetry in Sci-Fi Shorts, Bright Flash Literary Review, Five South, Roi Fainéant, Five Minutes and more. 
www.ninamillerwrites.com
@NinaMD1 (Twitter)

Mean Streets

Poetry by John Grey
​
CW: Risky Behavior & Mention of Violence


Yes, it was unfortunate they had to come to blows.
And it was two against one—not good odds.
But it's the city, late at night. What do you expect?
​

Violence breaks out as sudden, as automatic, as sneezing.
Guys fall on each other, punch and kick,
with no idea how and why the melee started.


One of them, no more than a kid, was on the ground.
The other two didn't stop even though they'd won already.
They just got more vicious, more cruel.


But an hour later, there was no sign of any of them.
They were back home. Even the guy who left
some of his blood on the sidewalk.

A woman waits for a cab right where the fight occurred.
A couple stroll by. A man stops to adjust his glasses.
Streets are kind until the next time they’re not.
John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Stand, Santa fe Literary Review, and Sheepshead Review. Latest books, ”Between Two Fires”, “Covert” and “Memory Outside The Head” are available through Amazon.