We invited you, our community of listeners, to share poems that inspire the way you move through your daily life,

and you shared so many thoughtful recommendations with us. This week, we're featuring five of your selections,

along with a reflection from the person who chose each one. If you'd like to participate in the next

round of community selections, sign up for our newsletter.

We'll be sending a special Slowdown Postcard to new subscribers that sign up this week.

Find the link in the show notes.

I'm Micah Keelbon, and this is The Slowdown.

Sharing poetry is a two-way street.

So today, you'll be hearing a poem selected by one of our listeners. Enjoy. I'm J.D. Isip,

and I'm in Richmond, Texas. One of the more embarrassing things about me is I'm a basic bitch. Can I say

basic bitch? I go to Walmart for my clothes, my groceries, for the dog food, everything. I've been to

nice grocery stores and stuff like that, but they tend to overwhelm me.

I don't need 12,000 kinds of olives.

I don't need all of that.

And so I just go to Walmart because I know exactly where everything is.

And I'm so boring.

But I've learned to accept and love my boringness and Walmart to an extent.

When you go to a grocery store, everything is quote unquote on display,

and you're also on display too, right?

And I don't know about you, but I think about what I wear, wherever I walk into.

I also look around and think, did these people think about what they were?

And it's so judgmental, right?

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