We hope you enjoy this episode of The Slowdown.

For more updates from us, subscribe to our newsletter at slowdownshow.org.

Hi, friends.

Today's episode is hosted by the poet Shira Erlichman.

Don't worry, I'll be back on October 30th.

I'm Shira Erlichman, and this is The Slowdown.

A few nights ago, I was paused at a crosswalk.

Midrunning errands, while my head spun with tasks.

I had my breath taken away.

To my right, I stood a man in white sneakers, arms heavy with pots,

head completely hidden by six huge bouquets of hydrangeas.

When I turned and first glanced at him, he appeared half-man, half-flower.

The shock of the soft, purple explosion where his head should have been,

tore me from my neurotic to-do list.

I was snapped out of what queer theorist Jose Esteban Muñoz calls,

Straight Time, a mindset obsessed with productivity.

Into what writer J. Wortham elaborates on as, Queer Time,

a sunset way of living, the kind treasured by people,

who perhaps understand with crackling urgency,

the importance of pleasures that even in small doses

can sustain you for weeks, months, years after the moment has passed.

The half-man, half-flower, has stayed with me.

...