water

Story·Emily Chang — A girl navigates family tensions and grief during a lake outing, culminating in an ice cream mishap that leads to an unexpected swim across the lake with her cousin.

Poetry·Zar Rezwan Pavri — A meditation on water transforms from stillness to boiling, from possibility to necessity, as the speaker makes soup from nothing but water itself.

Poetry·Lindsay Gale — Three distinct portraits of rain capture its varied moods: mystical mist, violent tempest, and bleak drizzle, each rendered through precise sensory language.

Personal Narrative·Xi Huang — After witnessing a powerful storm from her Florida deck, a young girl discovers the ocean's terrifying magnificence and gains new understanding of its dual nature.

Poetry·Ian Maduff — Light reflecting off wet pavement on a stormy night transforms into lasers, fountains, and aurora borealis in the speaker's imagination.

Poetry·Sage Surra — Fish rise from waters across the world to sing cosmic songs of life, death, and connection, pausing Earth's rotation and revealing the universe's vastness.

Story·Roy Zha — A raindrop named Roy falls from his cloud home, lands on grass, evaporates back to the sky, and discovers the water cycle is an endless, scary adventure.

Poetry·Jasmine Manderson-Arnott — A walk through a rainforest path leads to a creek where the narrator finds peace and sees their reflection in the water.

Poetry·Bryson Mendolera — Sand becomes an eagle flying across the desert, forming mountains and ripples, until drought-stricken cacti are blessed by sudden rain.

Personal Narrative·Luca Molinaro — During a Romanian beach vacation, a boy's fear of massive waves transforms when he learns to surrender to the ocean's power rather than fight it.