Michelle DeRose

Five-dollar breakfast on a plastic tray.
A dark-eyed family slips
into the booth behind, whispers
in Spanish, mutes even the crinkles
unwrapping their muffins.
Five lanes of thick traffic
beyond the large window. A grey
Expedition, front plate
blaring out-of-state.
The booth, already cleared.

Professor Emerita of English at Aquinas College, Michelle DeRose lives and writes in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her most recent publications appear in The New Verse News, Peninsula Poets, Dunes Review, and The Stafford Challenge Anthology.

This poem appears in Uprooted: Poems of Resistance, Witness, and Survival (The Chaos Section Poetry Project, Fall 2026). We’re sharing each poem from the collection individually over the coming weeks. You can read the full book or download the free PDF here.