Here at the southern end of California’s San Joaquin Valley, in one year we’ve gone from record drought to record snowmelt, and the Kern River once again flows through town, though the city warns against swimming in the swift, cold current. Forecasters have predicted a stronger than usual El Niño, so we may be in for another wet year before the cycling again turns dry and dusty. There’s a moral in there somewhere, but my eyes aren’t what they used to be, and even though I squint, all I can see are levees and irrigation canals. It’s a blessing, then, we’ve got these 25 poems and stories to dry or wash you off, depending on your need.

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T. Abeyta: “Dupe”

Susan Alkaitis: “Skin Is” and “Less”

Dee Allen. : “Earth Hour” and “Beads”

Yashi A. Bisht: “Emulation”

John Brantingham: Jacques-Louis David’s The Intervention of the Sabine Women: “A Kind of Peace” and “The Infants”

Leah Browning: “Trimming the Fat”

Bryce Johle: “Kelton School 1926-1996” and “Flatness During Recovery”

John Kucera: “Cohabitation” and “Fishing with Bill”

David Dodd Lee: “Forgiveness” and “The Finger”

Erin Mullens: “Fly Away”

Amy Foster Myer: “The Next Ice Age” and “Eden”

Will Musgrove: “What You Learned at the Indie Wrestling Show”

Kathy Nelson: “Hunger”

Garrett Phelan: “Napatree Point 2022”

Sara Sowers-Wills: “Ottoman” and “Flowers in the Graveyard”

Ian C Smith: “Wash up”

John L. Stanizzi: “The Stationary Traveler”