I'm Jane H and I donate to the slowdown. I've loved the slowdowns format and

mission from the first program I heard bringing indispensable poems to us all.

One poem a day beautifully chosen spoken and friend. Please join me in

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forward slash donate. Hi friends. Today's episode is hosted by the

inimitable poet Shira Ehrlichman. Hang tight and I'll be back on August 28th.

I'm Shira Ehrlichman and this is the slowdown.

Today's poet reflects on a girlhood lived in contrast to boys,

feral boys whose roads to manhood were paved by recklessness and violence. From

inside the auditorium of her son's school play of all places she leads us

through a dark labyrinth of questions. What does it mean to be a girl? Then a

woman, then a mother to a son, in this culture, this chaos, this jungle, the

jungle by Carrie Fountain. In motherhood I begin to celebrate my own smallest

accomplishments. As when I wake to find I've slept through the night and I feel

a little healed. Because sleeping is something I didn't learn how to do until I

was an adult and had to read a book about it because I've always liked a joke I

was raised by wolves. I was raised by wolves was in fact the very joke I made

and explaining to a fellow mom as the children's theater went dark that like my

own young son I was seeing the jungle book for the first time. I don't even

know what it's about I said. I was sort of raised by wolves I said and laughed and

then the curtain went up and I was shocked of course to find the jungle book is

about a boy who was raised by wolves and I am shocked again now having just

...