Poetry By Louisa Muniz

Gerry Dincher CC




In the Name of the Quick and the Dead

Buena suerte, mother said,
a superstition of good fortune,

when I told her about the bird droppings
on my bag stepping out of the local library.

Yet, luck, a lifeboat, rarely found our harbor. 

Father, mostly absent, died 
surrounded by his six children.

Mother, who raised us alone,
died alone.

Who held the luck?
Who held the grace?

I tell my brother this in conversation.
He says, Yeah, but Mother died quick.

In the name of the quick
in the name of  the dead,
in the name of the family tree.

Who among us in this long line 
of luck & love moves on 
when fortune slips 

from our hands 
like a small bird 
we cannot hold?






American God

With rosary beads in one hand,
and language folded in the other,
Mother left her Isla Del Encanto.

Each morning she rose to the light,
blessed herself before 

the burning heart of Jesus
hung on the living room wall.

Mija, asi es la vida, she said,
when I told her about the boy who yelled,
Mira, mira, go back where you came from.

The burning-heart Jesus bared its thorns. 
Her rosary beads hissed in the air.

Mother sealed every sentence with 
si Dios quiere.

Did In God We Trust 
include her language? 

Whitman heard America singing.
Why can’t I?  

Now, listening to the news, 
she’d probably whisper, 
ay bendito, praying an Ave Maria

in broken English to an American God
who turns, at times, from
an immigrant’s tongue.



​
Louisa Muniz lives in Sayreville, N.J. She holds a Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction from Kean University. Her work has appeared in ONE ART, Tinderbox Journal, Palette Poetry, SWWIM, Jelly Bucket, PANK Magazine, Jabberwock, Anti-Heroin Chic and elsewhere. She won the Sheila-Na-Gig Spring Contest for her poem Stone Turned Sand. Her work has been nominated for Best of the Net and a Pushcart Prize. Her debut chapbook, After Heavy Rains was released in December, 2020. Her recent chapbook, The Body is More Than a Greening Thing was published in June of 2025 by Finishing Line Press.