What I’ve Lost Since Winning a Contest for a Poem About Loss
What I’ve Lost Since Winning a Contest for a Poem About Loss
By Michelle DeRose

My reading glasses, at least once per day

My sense of direction on the streets of Dublin

My way to the bathroom that night
in the dark hotel room

One chocolate-and-orange Smartwool sock
It reappeared the day after I tossed its mate

My balance on the ice

A half-full bottle of aspirin the next week
purchased for the pain of a broken wrist

The same contest one year later

My faith in neighbors to make the right choice

One dog, an uncle, my father-in-law, a grandniece

My ability to predict what might conjure tears

Any sense of proportion to match tears with events

My temper, with all gods who control

Michelle DeRose holds a PhD in English from the University of Iowa and is a newly named Professor Emerita of English at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her poetry won the Chancellor’s Prize in 2024 and the Faruq Z Bey Award in 2023 from the Poetry Society of Michigan. Her poetry has been published in dozens of venues, most recently The New Verse News, Sparks of Calliope, The Midwest Quarterly, and Dunes Review.

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