Two poems by Kate LaDew

one day in 1590

it was discovered that 90 men,
17 women,
and nine children
had disappeared.
they looked and looked and still no one has found them.
so I suppose losing you is no great mystery
things like this happen


one day you say

so many things
to me all at once,
that,
in a pause
I take for my turn,
answer ‘Yes’
and the light
that swells up inside your eyes
and comes bursting
into every corner of the room,
tells me I am right


Kate LaDew is a graduate from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a BA in Studio Art. She resides in Graham, North Carolina, with her cats, Charlie Chaplin and Janis Joplin.

Photographer’s Note: In both poems, there is imagery of searching for answers. The speaker accepts that “It is what it is” in the first poem and finds “It is what I thought” in the second.