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Kate LaDew

@kateladew.com

400 followers 251 following 437 posts

🖋️ North Carolina author of short stories and poetry. Dedicated to civil rights & women's history.🪦 Inspired by historic cemeteries & forgotten lore. 🌊 Democrat. 🦢📄 Lover of origami. 🌐 kateladew.com #NCwriters #HistFic #CemeteryResearch #CivilRights #BlueNC

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Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 1h

#vss365 #harbour #music #BookSky #Poetry #LitSky

Poem text by Kate LaDew:

it took paul mccartney two minutes

to write the groove and rhythm,
the melody of "get back"
mozart composed his last 3 symphonies
in six weeks
charlie parker came up with 8 bar melodies
on the spot
b.b. king wrote "lucille" in the studio,
improvising over ten minutes
a spoken word blues track
of how he got his gibson back,
great things don't always need time
but they last, echo and echo and echo
a harbor of hopes and schemes
and the universe hums
whether we hear it or not
a needle skip-skip-skipping
as the record spins
playing the same story over and over again
the same note
remember when, remember when
BANG BOOM
and the world begins

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 03/10/2026

#vss365 #poetry #bees #PoetrySky #LitSky #BookSky

Poem text by Kate LaDew:

lure (the brightness of snow)

can fool a bee into believing it’s spring
that crystal white solidity blinds the mind
and all five eyes, two compound,
three ocelli
to the freeze underneath,
what does it think, as it sinks into the freeze?
fear, regret?
or does it believe,
I made it through the maze, finally,
I made it, I'm dissolving into the sun,
back to where I came from,
and who knew, who could've guessed,
heaven would be so cold?

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 02/10/2026

Some mornings I feel eyes on me, and when I turn, slowly, slowly, there he is. James Cagney, a gray shadow, protecting me from monsters and sleeping in.

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 02/10/2026

#vss365 #mountain #poetry #AmWriting #BookSky #LitSky

Poem text by Kate LaDew with an image of a gray and white paving stone with the words 'I Used To Be A mountain' in gold lettering:

there's a paving stone

on a street in brussels
darker than the rest
one night,
someone pried it out
took it away,
affixed a resist
to the smooth top,
sandblasted
with abrasive grit
six words
smoothed gold leaf
inside the grooves
then slipped the paving stone
back into the brussels street
that morning someone noticed
or maybe not
the next week someone noticed
or maybe not
the next month
the next year
or maybe not
one day, anyway,
a poet looked down
a line of gold catching the eye
and read
'I used to be a mountain'
the poet photographed
the paving stone
and the next day
and the next day
and the next day
people looked down
paused their feet
and thought
of all the things they used to be, too

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 01/10/2026

#vss365 #cloud #poetry #BookSky #LitSky #AmWriting

poem text by Kate LaDew:

I call, come look!

and you do
and it is not quite what I wanted
I wanted something, I wanted anything
ooh! aah! zap! pow!
but you look at the sky
and I know what I see
I see it perfectly
what is it? you ask
still looking up at the cloud
I am no longer pointing at
it's a pirate ship
it's always a pirate ship
it has never not been a pirate ship
and when I sigh and when I see you
looking at me now
a very small slight grin on your face
the sun twinkling your eyes
I shove my shoulder
against your shoulder
there it is
that is anything
that is
in fact
more than something

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 30/09/2026

#vss365 #bequest #poetry #History #LitSky #BookSky

poem text by Kate LaDew

he has seized the light

arrested its flight
in every daguerreotype
handed it piece by piece to the world
a bequest to humanity
who have never seen their faces
except in reverse
who have never seen their eyes
look anywhere but at themselves
louis writes down in a neat hand,
in schematics and blueprints,
just what to do for you to see you
polishing the plate, iodizing,
exposing in the camera,
mercury developing, fixing the image,
all patent free
and within weeks
all around the world
people hold out a small,
embossed leather case,
velvet lined, a copper plate inside,
silvery finish under glass,
slowly, they open it,
see themselves in black and white
slowly, they look around
at the people who know them
say, wonder in their eyes,
so this is what I look like

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 29/09/2026

#vss365 #reprieve #poetry #BlueSky #LitSky #AmWriting

poem text by Kate LaDew:

there is a small gap

between the down below
where the bad people go
and the up above
where the good people live
and in that gap
is the waiting
some, in confusion,
some, in elation,
because limbo can be
a punishment or a reprieve,
and as the souls shuffle in line
hoping to be prayed into heaven
every now and then,
when a shoulder is jostled
a head turned, an apology offered
eyes go wide,
a hand presses over a heart
oh! it's you! fancy meeting...
and the words
I thought you were better
I thought you were worse
go unspoken
they are, every soul, all of them,
every one, though they do not say it,
supremely surprised
they couldn't, after all,
read god's mind

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 28/09/2026

#vss365 #purify #Poetry #BookSky #AmWriting #LitSky

poem text by Kate LaDew:

I read something so wonderfully sad, I think,

I can't share it with you,
tears only purify where happiness waits,
and I don't know if you can handle this today
so I send you a poem full of sunlight
of already fallen rain and puddles splashed,
of hands warmed by fires and coffee mugs
all the gentle things we dream of
when hope seems slim and the future so long,
(and always, somehow, not long enough)
I separate my wonderfully sad into kernels,
pocket them for better days
and tell you how I think of you all the time
how nothing's true till I share it with you
and watch as hope rises in your eyes,
I forget myself, and begin to say,
I read something so wonderfully sad today--
(shh shh, no, not that)
run through all the hopeful facts I've learned,
(-a group of butterflies is called a kaleidoscope
-once, thousands of rubber duckies were lost at sea
and almost every day another is found
-the sound and motion of hershey kisses as they drop
on the candy conveyer belt sounded like a kiss, and so-)
did you know, I say, smiling is completely 100% innate?
and babies laugh before they can speak?
no, you answer, but, I suppose, it's true, now that you've told me
yes, I say, exactly,
and your lips curve,
a break in the clouds so sudden and miraculous
I'll live on it for days, weeks, always

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 27/09/2026

#vss365 #renounce #poetry #BookSky #AmWriting

how to abandon ship

clasp your hands together
renounce cowardice
decide it isn't giving up
believe it and jump
the water's colder
than anything you've ever felt
but your heart
your heart beats so fast
you think
you might come alive again
you think
you might even swim

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 26/09/2026

#vss365 #nurture #Love #BookSky #PoetrySky #Litsky

Poem text by Kate LaDew

the world revolves so slow

when it's watched, when it's nurtured
the clouds giving way to new ones
like ice melting in a glass of water
it's all the same
when things go, they don't go far
and I know, always,
as long as I live, I'll remember you

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 25/09/2026

#vss365 #reckon #Love #Poetry #BookSky #PoetrySky

Poem text by Kate LaDew:

we want a reckoning

maybe someday
but today
in the very middle of all this darkness
love sparks,
flickers a blue flame,
so hot
the darkness shudders, moves away
singed at the edges,
and love glows, it glows and glows,
shaken
but never overtaken

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 24/09/2026

#vss365 #hunger #PoliticalPoetry #LitSky #Poetry #AmWriting

Poem text by Kate LaDew:

to keep the wolves out

they'll pick off the weakest,
the sickest, the poorest,
they'll force them to the edge
and bite with frothing mouths
and then, they'll see you
they are always hungry
bellies, full to the brim
empty to the bottom
they'll see you
they will see you
and when you're gone
they'll eat each other
so, wrap your arms around the barely there
the weak, the sick, the poor
squeeze until you lose your breath
hold so tight, there's no space between us
a jumble of hearts sharing the same blood
here we are, on the edge,
do we make a ladder of our hands
or wait for the wolves to find us?
do we stack our souls,
a bundle that can't be broken?
do we hold tight
and watch them devour each other?
or do we let go
eyelashes fluttering as the teeth sink in

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 23/09/2026

#vss365 #passion #poetry #BookSky #LitSky #AmWriting

Poetry text by Kate LaDew

I delete the voicemail from a number I don’t recognize

without listening
because nine seconds is too short to say anything that matters
and I remember when I let you lead me, eyes closed,
arms stretched out like a zombie or a mummy,
you remember, the one boris karloff played—
or was it bella lugosi— anyway,
in that movie we saw when they played them at midnight,
the only ones in the theater,
black and white so fuzzy anything might have been happening
and when we got out, shocked by the intensity of the moon overhead,
there were children in halloween masks,
wolfman, dracula, frankenstein,
like the last hundred years hadn’t occurred,
where slasher movies and blood and guts and violent passion
and anything paranormal took us over,
and we walked across the empty street to the gas station
and bought full size snickers and m&m’s and reese’s
and gave them to the children, who pulled up their masks
eating hungrily without saying thank you
and if it was your number on my phone, I would’ve listened,
nine seconds more than enough to say:
remember when?
a thousand images flashing
yes, every one

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 22/09/2026

#vss365 #embark #PoliticalPoetry #Poetry #LitSky #AmWriting

it is beyond all comprehension that anyone could see this

and think good
and think yes
and think anything other than no no no
but you do not see
I push the images towards you
they were alive, they are no longer alive,
look
see
and you push them away
the way someone pushes away an unsatisfying meal,
picking out what you want leaving behind what you don’t
look
see
it is beyond all comprehension
so you do not comprehend
to do so would mean you’ve been tricked, duped, made a fool
we have embarked on a journey to save our country
yes
yes
yes
you would rather believe a lie than be wrong
I would rather not know the truth but can’t look away
because in the secret space of my heart, I believe god sees
and if he sees this, he sees me

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 21/09/2026

Thrilled that 4 of my poems are featured on Midnight Mind's Instagram! ✨ They are included in my poetry collection 📚 "what it feels like to be run over(mm/dd/yyyy)". westbraeliterarygroup.com/books/what-i... #PoetryCommunity #BookSky #WritingCommunity

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 15/09/2026

#vss365 #Poetry #Fall #BookSky #autumnal windblown eddies crinkling, cracking, crunching the susurration lulls us into dreaming

North Carolina in the Autumn, a long planked wooden bridge stretching into forever, surrounded by red and green grass, trees in yellow and orange and red with splashes of green and an electric blue sky

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 14/09/2026

#vss365 #sanguine #Poetry #BookSky

Poem text by Kate LaDew:

a bad case of the dysanias

that current of unreality
smooths all your little troubles away
most of the big ones too
your body becomes what it is
a raiment for the soul
and in your dreams
you are only you
sanguine, weightless, absolute,
only you
inexhaustible, boundless
an infinite spark inside a temporary vesture
you, through and through

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 13/09/2026

#vss365 #esoteric #poetry #BookSky

a library turned inside out

the tips of my fingers bleed before I feel it
tracing the pages with no spine in sight
white stains red and I cannot find you
your depths hidden from me
esoteric to the last
all the things I never asked
stack like stones, filling me up
and when the sun shines just so
a shadow stretches the length of your life
as I step into it
my own shape obscures what was never said
and we deepen to black, a sky without stars to guide us

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 12/09/2026

#vss365 #eloquence #poetry #BookSky #LitSky

Poem text by Kate LaDew:

I stayed quiet, just to see

how long and how loud you would look for me
a test thought up spur of the moment
purely for my own enjoyment
as I looked down from our yard's lone mulberry tree
the search started small, just a few lazy footfalls
before growing and growing and then, exploding,
into a fear you could feel a hundred miles away
the fear of what could happen, what has happened,
to little girls on bright summer days
‘come down here, right now, come down to me’
you shouted up to our yard's lone mulberry tree
I made my way carefully, heart pounding, fear mounting
at what you might say, as your voice yelled forcefully,
‘I’ve been looking everywhere for you, everywhere
I don't know what I'd do - ‘
the words cut in two as you threw your arms wide,
damp-eyed relief overriding red-eyed eloquent anger,
shaking me for an answer, ‘everywhere,’ you repeated,
‘I’ve been looking everywhere for you’
locked together under our yard's lone mulberry tree,
the soft of her neck was all I could see,
letting her love me all I could do
‘I know, mom, I know, I heard you’

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 11/09/2026

#vss365 #naive #poetry #history #BookSky

theory of ruin value

buildings collapse into beautiful ruins
like the greeks, like the romans long ago,
hitler's architect sketched great columns,
great arches, promised,
naive and confident,
in a thousand years,
they would prove superiority,
all the eyes of the world
forever on their towering lines
when ancient greece collapsed
toppled by the romans
when ancient rome collapsed
toppled by the germanic tribes
when nazi-germany collapsed
toppled by everybody
their buildings were pillaged for materials
concrete and limestone and marble and granite
mixed into war memorials and metro station brick
when the next empire collapses
where will all the imitation gold
and cubic zirconia go?

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 10/09/2026

#vss365 #mélange #melange #poetry #BookSky

her voice echoes soft

a melange of things gone
some music from another room
lost in the memory of that long ago afternoon,
echo, echo, echo,
his joke, but she's the only one who ever laughed,
doomed from the get-go,
they pass like smoke through empty rooms,
shadows on stained glass windows
heightening, brightening the gloom,
when the last of the family comes,
throwing sheets over sofas,
drapes undone, closing off the sun,
hands still as the room fills:
echo, echo, echo, the ghost of a laugh,
echo, echo, echo, in walks the past,
I could swear-- did you hear--
no, no, couldn't be--
but the notes blend
as every heart remembers them,
memories, like music from another room,
soft and slow-- echo echo echo

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 09/09/2026

#vss365 #intuition #poetry #BookSky

Poem text by Kate LaDew:

I was never able to draw a straight line

so it's lucky there are no straight lines in people
and your eyes are bright and huge
and there's a soft smile
and I think, maybe, it's pretty much you,
and as I spin the sketchbook around to face you,
you look for a long long time then say
I've only ever seen myself in reverse, after all,
oh, I say, looking down, no good?
it's just-- are my eyes so sad?
I tilt my head, not sad, kind
and your sad kind eyes look at me, isn't that the same thing?
sometimes, sometimes, but we inhabit the world as best we can
use intuition to guide us and when it inhabits us back--
wobbling down a straight line that curves when we least expect it,
hearts get heavy from the balancing, so when you reach out your hand,
look for the eyes who know the pain of the fall
who see themselves in reverse in the fear on your face
who say, follow me, I can't stop the drop, but I can take it with you

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 08/09/2026

#vss365 #moonglade #poetry #BookSky

so I'm thinking of you, of asking

did you know the reflection of moonlight on water is called moonglade?
maybe you'd say yes, maybe you'd say no
but either way, you'd be thrilled
both of us imagining
the moon coming down, dissolving into the lake behind your old house
the one with the forever outline of our hands in white paint --
do you remember that day?
shh, you said, as your mother stretched blue tape across the door frame
whoever lives here after us will find this and know
know what, I whispered
they'll know we exist, you whispered back, lapping your thumb over mine,
making the image of a white bird, finger wings outstretched --
moonglade, I bet you'd say, and pretend you're hearing it for the
first time that day,
how's about later we find some lake somewhere and see
and I'd agree, the way I always do, the way I always did,
but today you're far away, yesterday, the day before, since I can't
remember anymore,
so I just keep thinking of you, close my eyes and send my word out
into the world,
and all night I dream of moonglade, of things dissolving, of our
handprint taking flight,
flapping into a moonless night and fluttering the stars, wings whooshing,
whispering we existed, we existed, we exist

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 07/09/2026

#vss365 #History #Poetry children's handprints from hundreds of thousands of years ago so many, a #palimpsest background of layered color forms, red, black, brown, white, they hover over the rock as if waiting to be held, you are so small, little one, I can fit you in the palm of my hand

cave painting of dozens of stenciled hands, in red and brown and white, many small, possibly children's hands

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 06/09/2026

#Vss365 #Adroit #Poetry #BookSky #Science

Poetry text by Kate LaDew:

saturn tilts

it wobbles and steadies itself a million times a day,
smiling and nodding at the stars, acting casual
see, once, a long time ago,
saturn's biggest moon, titan, went wild,
out of nowhere, it began to barrel itself
round and round and round,
upsetting the whole universe
or, at least, saturn's corner of it,
and all the little, nameless moons,
who'd been quietly circling,
adroit and agile as anything in the universe
minding their own business,
got shoved around, pulled this way and that,
short circuiting their orbits
and smashing into each other,
the sound so loud everybody looked
all their little bits and pieces
got swept up again in saturn's pull
making rings round and round it
everything off center
everything just a little bit wrong
so, yeah, saturn tilts
saturn wobbles
keeps an eye on titan,
who still hasn't apologized,
sighs at the smashed smithereens
of the moons it used to know
if you'd had a day like saturn
no matter how many million years ago,
you'd wobble too

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 05/09/2026

#Saturday #Octopus #Cats James Cagney and Cephalo. Let's all get along and have a great #Caturday.

James Cagney, a gray and white cat with an aqua colored stuffed octopus toy, Cephalo, wrapped around his neck. Cagney seems a bit dazed.

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 05/09/2026

#Vss365 #reconnoitre #PoliticalPoetry #BookSky #poetry

Image: forest in black and white, black trees with white trees forming a swastika and the date '1933'

Poem text by Kate LaDew:

here was a giant swastika,

north of berlin,
they could see it from the air,
forestry students learning to survey,
great swaths of trees planted in an 'x'
with little dashes like hands crooking,
like a body broken and splayed,
this was 1992,
and pine larches can grow five feet every year,
so it had time, the swastika planted in 1937
to show loyalty to the party before the party was over,
was left, forgotten,
and, besides, you could only see it in winter,
yellow amongst the green,
and only from a very great height,
when the students landed, informed the authorities,
they were a little worried that, once the news got out,
it might attract some people who, 55 years later,
still wore party hats, waiting,
so they started cutting the trees down,
one by one, a few every day,
while people watched, overhead,
after a long while, the people watching radioed in,
it's done, the effect is gone,
no more swastika,
just a great swath of browning trees
in the middle of endless green,
and so, everybody left, mission accomplished,
and in the time it took them to reach the edges of the forest,
seeds from the larche's cones
bulletting the dead branches fell,
sank into the earth, waited

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 04/09/2026

#vss365 #silhouette #Poetry #BookSky #PoliticalPoetry

Poem text by Kate LaDew:

in the late 90s, someone patented a 'hand-held decoy and hunter shield'

a silhouette of a turkey -- grouse, partridge, pheasant, quail,

anything you plan on killing --

with a screen in the middle to watch through

held by a handgrip or stuck in the ground.

earlier hunting blinds --

a life-size cow with room for two,

a giant water-ready duck-shaped boat,

or a land bound fowl, with a revolving top,

holes for a rifle barrel where the wish-bone would be --

were just as obviously fake, all clean lines and symmetry

nothing of the jaggedness, the chaos of living things,

a sham that could be spotted a million miles away

and yet, if you waited for the shooting to stop,

and crawled, carefully, carefully,

to the ground below the dozens of different decoys,

all disguising the killer as the thing they kill,

you'd find countless animals stretched out

a look of surprise hung in their dead eyes.

now, thousands of human bodies line head to toe,

beginning to stack, fallen before state issued

shiny black boots, shiny black shields,

assault weapons pressed into armored black chests,

sparking gloves hiding ragged nails stained with old blood.

as they march over and through,

the eyes of the dead catch the light.

inside them, there's not a hint of surprise

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 03/09/2026

#vss365 #elixir #poetry #BookSky #LitSky

besom

household implement? used for sweeping?
a broom for the slower ones in the back
you get it, but after I open the grimoire,
flip to 'flying spells,' after I apply my flying ointment--
readily available from any elderly witch over 40,
it's a joke we have-- smooth it into my elbows,
knees, neck, across the collarbones,
a small dollop on the heels -- I must be thrifty --
a smidge up and around the curls of my ankles,
after I ready the besom,
run my needles over the bristles, scratch-scratch,
after I rev an invisible engine, well, I'm off
I let my toes skim the rose bushes, coming back pink,
I bite my thumb, I thumb my nose, I blow raspberries,
I stick my thumbs in my ears, hee-haw hee-haw,
and I can't fly for very long,
mandrake and thorn apple never quite taking,
never quite gifting the besom the magic it needs,
the grimoire chock full of love potion recipes
and spells for summoning demons
but I don't want elixirs, all the demons are already here,
I want hope, I want something to believe in,
and yeah, I want spite,
because it never solves anything, but, I don't know, it might?
it puts a smile on my face anyway,
and when my besom runs out of gas,
I glide back, chug-chug-sputter-pant
you'll never get a better night's sleep
than the one you take after spitting in the metaphorical eye
of the mighty and high who don't think there's a hell
if they behave like this,
but boy, brother, take a good look around,
we known there is

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 02/09/2026

#vss365 #console #poetry #LitSky #BookSky

Poem text by Kate LaDew:

ultracrepidarian

I am one, utterly
giving advice and opinions
on things I have never,
will never experience
to comfort, to relieve,
but I mean well
and I have a heart
some have called big
some have even called good
and none of it may work
and you don't have to try any of it
but if you listen
just listen, for a little while,
as I think of you outloud
trying to solve all the problems
you have told me
and some of them you haven't,
you might find comfort
in knowing that, one person,
at the very least,
wants nothing but the best for you

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 01/09/2026

#vss365 #empathy #poetry #BookSky

Poem text by Kate LaDew:

the abandoned heart

I leave you by the side of the road
think better of it
the fire station?
the church?
the lone mosque?
lone synagogue?
I want to leave you
with someone who can take better care of you than I do
because you’re killing me
if you didn’t work quite so well
I could sleep at night
what about the cemetery?
under the sycamore tree
the one with all the lovely purple flowers circling it?
you like it here, I know
it’s the only time you’re quiet
this jumble of roots maybe,
the ones that look like hands
it’ll be shady and cool
no one ever comes here but us
when I walk away
my chest echoes
it’ll take awhile
to stop hearing your beat
but I’m going home
and when I get there
I’m going to sleep

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 31/08/2026

#vss365 #wax #poetry #BookSky

Poem text by Kate LaDew:

at the scholastic book fair I bought books to scare me

flipped each page quickly, never settling,
I hid them under my bed
when I went to sleep
I could feel the black ink radiating
casting shadows on the ceiling
the candle man trapping souls in wax,
some thing, waiting on the road
the girl with the red spot
a spider's nest writhing, ready to hatch,
the babysitter and the man upstairs,
the hungry doll, the wendigo,
the scarecrow who climbs down,
I watched them shift and change
in the slivers of moonlight escaping the curtains,
they creeped into my dreams,
nestled on the backs of my eyelids
slunk and skulked
waiting waiting
I don't why I did it,
allowed all that in,
they're still there, a million years later
groaning under the floorboards in my head,
but, what do you do, when you dig up a coffin?
you open it

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 30/08/2026

#vss365 #broom #poetry #BookSky

poem text:

you can't love someone just a little

you either do or you don't
so when some day I come home
and find the house burning down
I won't save you first, there's the cats of course,
and my mother and father smiling from a frame,
and that really great sketch I did in college of the flamingos
and my uncle's wooden chess board, and the heels I just bought,
but then, I'll throw you over my shoulder, promise, and deposit you on the grass
and we'll watch the firemen douse all the things that matter a little
but not enough to be beside us as the sky crackles and pops
and I won't even yell at you until months later, when nothing's sorted but almost there,
and you burn the toast and the smoke alarm gets hysterical,
and I knock it off the ceiling with a broom
and look away as tears come to your eyes, and I won't apologize,
but I will stop waving the broom at you and eat the toast anyway
while my parents watch from their frame,
and the flamingos shine pink and white from the wall
and the cats take turns batting the chess pieces to the floor
you can't love someone just a little
you either do or you don't
I've decided I do and the responsibility of that isn't always fun
but your grateful smile as I brush burnt toast crumbs into my palm
is more than a little and just enough

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 29/08/2026

#vss365 #glove #poetry #BookSky

Poem text by Kate LaDew:

we cinch the rope tight

throw it straight up to heaven

and lasso god down

he shimmies and shakes

as we hold up our fists

ready for a fight he doesn't give,

alright, he sighs, what is it —

we don't let him finish

thrust our hands straight into his chest

pull back our own hearts instead

so that's how it is, we say

and he nods, from the very first day

we pick him up and with all our might

throw him right back up to heaven,

dropping the rope,

we pull off our gloves,

douse the sight in bleach,

light a fire for our clothes

in case they captured some tell-tale glow

as we wait for all proof to vanish

our eyes catch over the flames

we’re all thinking the same thing

better keep it quiet, we decide,

gotta have somebody to blame

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 29/08/2026

Janis Joplin is feeling just okay today #Caturday #Cats #Morning

Close up of a sedate black and brown cat with green eyes

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 28/08/2026

#vss365 #tissue #poetry #BookSky

text of poem by Kate LaDew:

grocery store lists

found in coat pockets,
house keys tied with pink ribbon,
a mystery gold locket in the back of the closet,
I press my ear to the bedroom floor and listen,
there you are, your slow soft tread on the carpet
trailing off into the laminate of the kitchen,
there's nothing left there but dust and old promises,
boxed and bagged in the corner like apparitions,
I'm still in the bedroom, eyes closed,
wishing your memory back,
soft pink sweaters, soft white hair,
the scent of heather and flax in the air,
all these little things I remember
painful and tender
tissue paper and bows, stacked like christmas
for the days ahead, ready to unwrap
when I don't have you and want you,
when I need to hear you and see you,
I trace the edge of the house key in my palm,
feel the warmth that lingers
from the pink ribbon tied by your fingers,
and I hear my voice whisper,
I'm so glad you were my mom

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 27/08/2026

#vss365 #pillow #poetry #BookSky #trees

poem text by Kate LaDew:

those little hands like ghosts

on bark grown old,
furrowed and plated,
every day it waited
for the sun to singe the cold away
bringing the children with the day
the tree never knew its limbs could be swings,
its trunk a bed, roots a pillow,
leaves canopies shading books to read,
the tree never knew
it could be a landmark searched for,
a destination found,
a polestar rising from the ground,
those little hands like ghosts
on bark grown old,
furrowed and plated,
every day the tree waited
for the sun to singe the cold away
bringing the children with the day
stretching out its limbs, rustling its leaves
the tree became a canopy for little hearts that dream

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 26/08/2026

#vss365 #poster #poetry #BookSky

Poem text by Kate LaDew:

a man is sitting on his bank branch's steps

waiting for it to open
when an atomic bomb detonates over his city
hotter than the center of the sun
thermal radiation
burns the bank's stone face alabaster
leaving one dark gray granite shadow
the size and shape of a man
where the customer used to be
his body charred and carbonized
ash and bone fragments blown away
by the 1,000 mile an hour blast
that followed the heat flash
27 days later, when the war is over,
his shadow is carefully cut out of the steps,
removed intact and taken to a museum
all about the war and why it happened
and people who weren't turned to ash
walk past the man's shadow
and wonder if they knew him

The dark silhouette on the stone steps of the Sumitomo Bank in Hiroshima is a "nuclear shadow" left by a person sitting outside the branch when the atomic bomb exploded on August 6, 1945.

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 25/08/2026

#vss365 #sponge #poetry #BookSky

Poem text by Kate LaDew:

I taste the soap in the cup of tea you pour for me

I taste the yellow sponge

I taste the palm of your hand

and the tremor as your wrists stretch taught

I taste the whorls in the table and the floor underneath

I taste everything that has made this place and this moment

and the black and white movies that taught you the exact angle

to tip a teapot and not spill a drop and it tastes like practice

and it tastes like knowing and it tastes like the edges of your fingers

as you curled strawberry blonde wisps behind my ears

the very first day I was ever alive, the very first day I opened my eyes

and I let the dip of my chin tumble those wisps, darkened to brown

hoping you’ll reach towards me, hoping you’ll lean in close,

hoping you’ll take one strand, tuck it behind my ears

and let me look at you the way I have always looked at you

the first thing I ever saw, the first thing I ever knew I loved

your presence as deep and dark and constant as the beat of my own heart

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 24/08/2026

#vss365 #cord #poetry

poem text:

you say it’s your mother’s birthday,

she’d be 5 years older if she hadn’t drunk the 20 before,
you say a strange dog came to your door and looked up at you,
eyes solemn before padding away,
you ask me if it’s connected, if maybe-
definitely, I say, quick,
because I don’t know what else to say about the lost people,
I think so, too, you tell me,
and I hope you never see that dog again,
I plead to your mother silently, don’t come back,
then he’ll know it was you, then he’ll know he can let you go,
maybe she’ll listen like she never did in life,
maybe that invisible cord between their hearts,
the one buried somewhere underground,
the one keeping him hunched, old, rooted,
maybe it will loosen, just a little,
let go, I pray, leave him alone, leave him alone, leave him alone--
you're still looking at me, I miss her, you say,
I know, I know, happy birthday

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 23/08/2026

If you like poetry about real historical events, you can order my debut collection, 'what it feels like to be run over (mm/dd/yyyy),' here: westbraeliterarygroup.com/books/what-i... (James Cagney, post-dinner photobomb, below) #BookSky #Poetry #History #WritingCommunity

A close-up photo of the book 'what it feels like to be run over (mm/dd/yyyy)' by Kate LaDew on a desk with a gray cat next to it. The cat is looking at the camera and licking her lips.

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 23/08/2026

Persnickety Books, Burlington #NC #BannedBooks #BookSky All the banned books are against hate and for #love

Persnickety Bookshop in Burlington, North Carolina bookcase with examples of Banned Books, Maus, Of Mice and Men, This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson, The Kite Runner, etc.

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 23/08/2026

#vss365 #poetry #history they found loaded #dice in an egyptian pyramid, nobody's ever been honest and if it's better to be lucky than good, which gods do you pray to?

Four square white ivory loaded dice from 79 AD

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 22/08/2026

A debut collection centered on history, ordinary lives, and the passing of time. Pick up your copy of Kate LaDew's 'what it feels like to be run over (mm/dd/yyyy),' out now from Westbrae Literary Group westbraeliterarygroup.com/books/what-i... #BookSky #Poetry #WritingCommunity

A text excerpt of a poem from Kate LaDew's debut collection, what it feels like to be run over (mm/dd/yyyy):

you life your finger carefully as if heavy with paint
slide it down my cheekbone and under my chin, pausing, as if to
consider
once, da vinci, after days of absence,
wandered into the dining hall of the monastery of santa maria
dell grazie,
crossed his arms and looked up at jesus looking down,
in the evening light he lifted his brush, slid an arc of tempera
over a slice of lemon
stepped back and walked away
your eyes move in an arc over my face as I touch my fingertips
to my cheek,
raising them to the light, striations of yellow shimmer

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 22/08/2026

“Poetry as an unsparing act of witness.” Out now from Westbrae Literary Group: what it feels like to be run over (mm/dd/yyyy) by Kate LaDew. A collection mapping history, ordinary lives, and the weight of the past. Order directly via the link below: #BookSky #Poetry #WritingCommunity

Cover of 'what it feels like to be run over (mm/dd/yyyy)' written by Kate LaDew, black yellow and beige to resemble a roadway.

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 22/08/2026

#vss365 #towel #birds #poetry

poem text, black ink on white page:

hummingbird wings rotate in figure eights

wrists generating constant lift
skylarks sing while hovering
each note clear and lifting
kinglet's winglets turn up at their edges
floating looks effortless
kestrels balance on the wind
wings flapping forward
they hang in one spot
every ounce of energy used up
we dig our feet into the ground
push away, arms pumping
when we leap
towel tied tight around our necks
we feel gravity's hand stretch out
but there is a moment
at the top of our rise
just before the dip
when we are boundless

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 22/08/2026

#cats #Caturday #Morning It's 8am and James Cagney is already tired.

A gray and white cat named James Cagney yawns super big behind a gray curtain while lying in a blue window seat

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 21/08/2026

#vss365 #razor #poetry #PoliticalPoetry

Poem text, black on white:

I'm alright, jack

outward signs of inner tension
quick to anger quick to apologize
smiles stretched thin as a razor
elaborate courtesies
to make up for the crumbling of the world
a stranger dips low
bowing
swings out a hand
gesturing towards a door
that opens by itself
after you after you
no one meets each other's eye
afraid we'll see
who pulled the ladder up behind them
who, after knowing, we won't be able to love

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 20/08/2026

#vss365 #kettle #poetry #birds #PoetrySky

Poem text black ink on white:

not every bird is a soloist

some prefer duets
a cascade of clear high notes
a steady low trill underneath
mixing together so seamlessly
you can't tell where one voice ends
and the other begins
tea-kettle-tea-kettle-tea-kettle
sing the carolina wrens
110 decibels, loud as a backyard rock concert
little bodies the weight of an aa battery
building nests in old boots, mailboxes,
hanging flower pots, coat pockets,
folded umbrellas, porch rafters
tea-kettle-tea-kettle-tea-kettle
once a partner is chosen
they stick it out for life
tea-kettle-tea-kettle-tea-kettle
dueting in a dawn chorus
a mid-day serenade
winding down in the evening
as dusk fades to dark
tea-kettles slowly losing their boil
sighing as they huddle together
heads tucked firmly under their tiny shoulders
two balls of feathers breathing
melodies waiting in their throats
for dayspring to wake them up

Kate LaDew @kateladew.com · 19/08/2026

#vss365 #soap #poetry #BookSky

Poem text, black on white:

you get one take for a combustion

the actor says
a blood cannon
splattering the walls
it's too hard to clean up and reset
so you get one
and you better make your death fall
look good
corn syrup, food coloring, corn starch
a sprinkle of sugar, a dash of soap
for that wet, glossy look
arterial blood is bright red and runny
a few squeezes of blue and green make it pop
venous blood is dark and thick
so a tablespoon of cocoa powder
does the trick
mix mix mix
the way god makes a soul
a little of this, a little of that
a sprinkle of good
a dash of instinct
a dollop of mercy
the bad comes later
that's the world's job
mix mix mix
unique and irreplaceable
the same deep red
circling through translucent veins
it stains when it's spilled
you get one take
make it good