Introduction / Laura Paskus -- The current dream of rebellion / Sarah Gilman -- A long view over Albuquerque / Maria Lane -- The water carrier / Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk -- The intentions of a desert / Santana Shorty -- Black rock dam / Desiree Loggins -- What emerges on the other side / Chris La Tray -- Lightweight / Daniel Rothberg -- Water eats, earth drinks / Sarah Gilman -- The undertow / Laura Paskus -- She wants to be a river / Michelle Otero -- A letter from the confluence of a very old river / Aaron A. Abeyta -- The shape of goodbye / Christi Bode -- River song / Santana Shorty -- Letter born of a snowy morning / CMarie Fuhrman -- Gallinas river park: Rules and regulations / Leeanna Torres -- Sade in the pandemic / Fatima van Hattum -- Rillito / Ruxandra Guidi -- Ocean cactus / Santana Shorty -- What we talk about when we talk about waters / Kate Schimel -- Skinny-dipping / Luke Runyon.

"The human experience has always been shaped by water, by its absence and its abundance. Now, as the climate crisis worsens, dry riverbeds and record floods remind us that water was never merely a resource to be managed or a commodity to be sold. It wields the power to reshape continents and capture our imaginations--a force as beguiling as it is seductive. In Water Bodies, some of the West's most thoughtful writers remind us why stories about water stretch back as far as we can remember and that where we find water, we find ourselves." (from the publisher)