Louisa Muniz
Louisa Muniz lives in Sayreville, N.J. She holds a Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction from Kean University. Her work has appeared in Tinderbox Journal, SWWIM, ONE ART, Palette Poetry, Menacing Hedge, Gyroscope, Poetry Quarterly, PANK Magazine, Shark Reef and elsewhere. She won the Sheila-Na-Gig online 2019 Spring Contest for her poem “Stone Turned Sand.” Her work has been nominated a few times for Best of the Net and a Pushcart Prize. Her debut chapbook, After Heavy Rains, by Finishing Line Press was released in December, 2020. She is presently working on her second chapbook.
Shadow of Absence
The sun unfurls in halved-apple light.
Docked boats sway in the Raritan Bay.
Hands resting on the railing, you stand
at the marina with your father.
He’s returned, yet again, after weeks away.
Say cheese, your sister says & presses
the button on the disposable camera.
He smiles—a Kodak moment,
broad & infectious, mostly to hide
his doe-wide wound: orphaned at seven.
Next to him, you feign a smile, mostly
to hide the ache of absence, chain stitched
to your plaid skirt’s pleated pocket.
How do you navigate love & distance?
Your child within plays numb.
You are growing— thick skin
in the shadow of absence,
the high tide of loss.
Overhead, the forgiving light
of the sky centers you.
The seagulls circle without
flapping their wings.
Think November, under a lapis moon—
some birds stay, others move away.
