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- [00:01]
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- [00:36]
Major Jackson
I'm Major Jackson and this is the Slowdown. This is my last official episode as host of the Slowdown. It features someone who has supported me in this role throughout my wife, the poet Dee Dee Jackson. The past two years of reading and reflecting on the words of many admired poets were often done in collaboration with her, often my first pair of eyes. She joined me in reading numerous literary journals and poetry magazines. She recommended new voices, listened patiently and I read out loud first drafts of scripts, fact checked my stories and made sure I took care of myself whenever I was inclined to ignore my health. Our family dog is a gray and black terrier we named Finn. Dee Dee loves Finn. He is dog aggressive. Despite multiple attempts at training, Finn never warmed up to other canines. When he was a puppy, we took him to a group class while other dogs cavorted in a brightly lit room. Finn mostly sat in a corner, gnawing at his leash and low level growling. At the end of the session, we were asked not to return. We hired several private dog trainers. One simply yanked his chain on walks around the block. Dede winced every time. The other trainer encouraged us to learn to divert when trouble nears, so we crossed the street when another dog and its owner approached. They all brought forth tons of treats out of fanny packs. We never got comfortable with the shock collar and ruled out weekends. At a training site for military dogs. We tried playdates with friends dogs, which always ended the same. Finn never saw any reason to trust another dog enough to play, so we drive by dog parks and look longingly, thinking he'll mellow out with age. We know he was shaped by his days roaming the streets. Strangers are danger. The postal worker, delivery driver and gardener tolerate his barking through our front door. Vacuum cleaners and hair dryers are massive alarms that set him to growling and biting at air to distract him. I do my goofy dance and he's back to his playful self chasing me around the house. Which is why, in the end, we wouldn't trade him for nothing in the world. We wouldn't give up those morning licks on the face, nor the way he sidles up close during morning coffee. He's just Finn. Today's poem honors the family dog whose imperfections are all the more reason to love. The Slowdown was more than a labor of love. Each episode was an invitation to dream how we might come to love our imperfect world. The party is downstairs by D.D. jackson. The rescue dog who is locked inside a room away from the party, sits as close as he can, shimmies his rear to the place the jam and door join, presses his back to the needle of light that escapes from the hallway, and there begins his dream of muted barks and twitches, of chase. He forges a second and third head to protect his small threshold, sharpens his knife mine, and drinks in the multitudes of his enemies. Just yesterday he chased an inkblot of light from the opening glass kitchen door and ran along the wall incessantly licking at the spot into which he knew it must have disappeared. Surely he knows who least to worry about. They say dogs can tell a bad person. It's all perspective or pheromones to have that chickpea nose, the terrier goatee of Trotsky, the eyes like two black olives, the ability to separate out in advance those who might cause pain. And how many lifetimes could that skill have saved me? My friend who when helping me build bookshelves, yelled at my dog and then his wife, her cocoa colored hair covering half her face. And though this stray weighs only as much as a jug or two of milk, his sleep breath is mixed with the desolation of train windows and of abandoned homes and the empty streets from which he was born. The Slowdown is a production of American Public Media in partnership with the Poetry Foundation. This project is also supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. On the web@arts.gov to get a poem delivered to you daily, go to slowdownshow.org and sign up for our newsletter and find us on Instagram @downdownshow and bluesky.downdownshow.org the slowdown is written by me, Major Jackson. Our lead producer is Micah Kilbon, and our associate producer is Maria Wartel. Our music is composed by Alexis Cuadrado, engineering by Alex Simpson and Josh Savageone. Our digital producer is James Napoli. Studio engineering help from Doug Geary. Additional production help by Susanna Sharpless, Rebecca Rand, Jordan Turgeon, and Lauren Humper. Our executives in charge of APM Studios are Chandra Kavati and Joanne Griffith. Hi, It's Major. Before becoming host, I listen to the Slowdown each morning as an essential daily ritual, and I plan to keep listening. I hope you'll join me in supporting the Slowdown's next chapter. Please consider making a donation today as an investment in the future of this program. Visit slowdownshow.org donate or find the link in the show notes. Thank you for your support.