Kate LaDew: December 2021 Poet of the Month

Photo: Joanna C. Valente

do you remember when we would go to the arboretum 

we read every sign naming every plant, 

even the ones that weren’t there 

we always picked the wrong time 

when things were dying or dead 

or when there was a space of dirt, 

everything waiting under the ground, 

never any other times but those 

I think it’s because when it was cold 

and nothing lived 

we needed to see that they would, soon, 

sounding out each syllable and stepping back, 

looking at the black and white drawing 

of what was not there yet, 

imagining them in our heads 

the colors bloomed like wishes

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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 cats, Charlie Chaplin and Janis Joplin.