We’re a week past the autumn equinox, and a storm may or may not bless us with rain on Tuesday.  We’re not holding our breath.  We’re not wondering what it will take to wash the indifferent dust from the politician’s face and hands. We’re not hoping tomorrow will bring a change, for we know that all there is is now. You’re here, now, so read some of the good words from our seventh issue! Let them replenish your literary reservoirs!

Gale Acuff: “The Moral of the Story”

Stephen Briseño: “My Grandma’s Kitchen on Denver Ave.,” “To My Five-Year-Old Starting Kindergarten,” and “All Trees Dream of Fire”

Ana Cottle: “Every human being is worlds apart”

Isla Cueva: “This One Is for My Mother,” “Half-Hearted,” and “Confessional”

D.S. Maolalai: “Sudden Showers,” “The Weight of Leaves,” and “The Artist”

sara matson: “wet talk” and “ouija queen”

Michael Minassian: “Come on Down,” “A Sound Like Spiderwebs,” and “Reflections on a River”

Mark A. Murphy: “An Old Hut on Baildon Moor” and “Encounters with Modern Art”

Kristin Roedell: “Jazz Man” and “The Opposite of Waves”

Daphne Stanford: “Suffice,” “Caressing Nouns,” and “Translucence”

Rekha Valliappan: “A Fistful of Indigo”

Grace Yannotta: “Shoot“