Amid the sweet smell of flowers, the temperature dips and a pouring rain comes through — but the sun dries it up quickly
by Maeve Fox | illustration by Rani Ray

Maeve Fox is a trans poet from Western North Carolina. She has been published in the  Kakalak Anthology and The Writing Fae magazine. Her first poetry collection, Letting Go of Me, debuted in 2025. Fox writes about the Appalachian LGBTQ experience. When not writing she is a district court mediator. “I was writing in the solarium when a sudden storm sprung up around me. I was surrounded by glass panels and I felt as if I were part of the storm itself.”

Rani Ray is a Cary-based watercolor artist and a partner at Rani & Joe’s Watercolors. A signature member of the Watercolor Society of North Carolina and the Fine Arts League of Cary, she is drawn to the medium’s spontaneity. She begins with a sketch but lets water and pigment lead the way — embracing the process as a lesson in letting go. “This painting was inspired by the especially brief nature of a spring storm, where the real beauty lies not in the storm itself, but in the softness and stillness it leaves behind.”

This article originally appeared in the May 2026 issue of WALTER magazine.