2 Poems by Kate LaDew

you give me dreams

maybe I’ve never known you
except in that dark somewhere
where people find each other
the shadows highlight your face
and it is beautiful and black and bottomless
and only once in a lifetime does God surrender perfection
you are mine and I am crumbled before you
bleeding into slivers of stars that deepen
and meld with the dark
of your hands
sorrow divine as you
is not given up willingly
and I sleep in tumbles of shadows
black and bottomless


the message my father left before he died

it was one of those old answering machines with the little red light
beamed in from some other time,
you call me so late or so early
say:

this is important
I wanted you to know,
and this is important,
I want you to know I loved you
in all the world, you moved me
I couldn’t let you down
I wanted you to know, listen, please, just listen,
this is important, I wanted you to know
I remembered you

it’s the only proof I have, you’re scattered somewhere in the wind now
the only proof I have your voice once filled a space
and it will fill me up forever, looping around my heart til I can’t breath
you call me every day, so late, so early,
the tips of my fingers rewinding again and again
this is important
this is important
this is important


Bionote

Kate LaDew is a graduate from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a BA in Studio Art.  She resides in Graham, NC with her cat, Charlie Chaplin. ladewk@yahoo.com