[encore] 1383: The Situation in Our City by Ciona Rouse
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily
American Public Media
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 24 March 2026
⏱️ 6 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Slowdown is taking a week to return to some of our favorite episodes from Maggie’s tenure so far. We’ll be back on Monday, March 30 with new episodes.
Today’s poem is The Situation in Our City by Ciona Rouse. Today’s episode was originally released on October 28, 2025.
In this episode, Maggie writes… “This poem has me thinking more and more about chance, and about our circumstances. It also has me thinking about the ways we take care of one another, and how we can—and must—do BETTER. As James Baldwin famously wrote, ‘The children are always ours.’”
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, it's Maggie. |
| 0:02.1 | This week, we are revisiting some of our favorite poems and reflections from the season so far. |
| 0:14.0 | I'm Maggie Smith, and this is The slowdown. |
| 0:31.1 | On this planet, at this very moment, |
| 0:34.7 | so many things are happening all at once. |
| 0:40.8 | In these next few minutes, as you listen to this episode, babies will be born, |
| 0:48.2 | couples will get married, people will receive incredible news about their health or their careers or the art they've been making. So many big, bright, beautiful things are happening at this very moment. |
| 0:56.9 | None of them headline news. |
| 0:59.5 | We won't even know about them. |
| 1:02.4 | While you listen to and absorb the poem I'll share with you today, |
| 1:07.6 | people will finish marathons and collapse into the arms of people they love. |
| 1:13.7 | People will adopt pets who lick their faces with gratitude on the car ride home. |
| 1:20.2 | People will work up the courage to play their first original song on guitar at an open mic. |
| 1:32.4 | Right now, somewhere in the world, flowers are opening for the first time, birds are taking flight for the first time, spiders are weaving |
| 1:39.2 | their first webs. It's mind-boggling and uplifting to think about all of the celebration-worthy things that are |
| 1:48.4 | happening at this very moment. But also, at any given moment, people are dying, or being gravely |
| 1:57.7 | injured, or receiving terrible, life-altering news. |
| 2:02.7 | It can be overwhelming to think about this flip side of the coin, |
| 2:07.5 | but that is what today's poem invites us to do. |
| 2:11.9 | This poem has me thinking more and more about chance |
| 2:16.4 | and about our circumstances. It also has me thinking about |
| 2:22.0 | the ways we can take care of one another and how we can and must do better. As James Baldwin |
... |
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