This month yields a second Moon Prize, the 90th, and it goes to Louisa Muniz's poem "Isolation in D Minor."

Isolation in D Minor

by Louisa Muniz

 
Wet newspapers, dirty laundry
& recyclables pile up for days.
 
The sun hides under a wet dress.
 
The ants persevere. Push
bread-crumbs across the floor
 
to the sound of God’s pounding fist
in Mozart’s Requiem D Minor.
 
Droning fridge, barking dog
ticking clock rim the day.

The fortune cookie reads,
the fortune you seek is in another cookie.
Yet, I have been blessed in this life.
 
Blessed art thou amongst…
Will only the meek inherit…?
 
The cloudless sky babies itself blue.
When the sun offers her self-care
 
I prep the soil, soak the bulbs.
Plant the snowflake flower
nose up for late spring bloom.


* * * * *

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, Palette Poetry, Menacing Hedge, Poetry Quarterly, PANK Magazine, Jabberwock Review and elsewhere. She won the Sheila-Na-Gig 2019 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 by Finishing Line Press was released in December, 2020.