1338: Are you bringing fruits, plants, seeds, by Karen Llagas

Summary

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The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

Episode 1338: “Are you bringing fruits, plants, seeds” by Karen Llagas
Date: August 26, 2025
Host: Maggie Smith

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Overview

In this episode, Maggie Smith explores themes of borders, belonging, and the anxieties of immigration through Karen Llagas’s poem "Are you bringing fruits, plants, seeds." The poem and Smith’s reflections center on the rituals of crossing into new territories—literal, cultural, and emotional—and the often-overlooked tensions and absurdities that accompany them.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Personal Anecdote: The Innocuous Contraband

• [01:06] - [02:27]
  Maggie opens by recounting two entries into foreign countries: having a banana confiscated in Ireland, and surrendering mace at the Canadian border. She uses these stories to reflect on the routine, yet oddly unsettling nature of customs inspections.
  • “I had no idea that certain agricultural products like plants, fruits, nuts and seeds are restricted and must be declared when travelling internationally.” (Maggie Smith, 01:48)
  • Smith draws a distinction between her own lack of anxiety—due to race and citizenship—and the greater anxieties faced by nonwhite or immigrant travelers.

2. Anxiety & Customs as Gateways

• [02:28] - [03:28]
  Smith pivots from her lighthearted anecdotes to the very real stress many face at customs, focusing on the disparities depending on identity, political climate, and perceptions of “danger.”
  • “I'm sure it's a worrisome process for many people, regardless of the political climate, but I think it's even more worrisome under administrations that are hostile toward immigrants and non-white travelers and in times that feel fraught, like right now.” (Maggie Smith, 03:14)

3. Introduction to Karen Llagas’s Poem

• [03:29] - [04:03]
  Smith introduces the poem as a lens on American anxieties, “how many people seem fixated on the dangers outside our borders without acknowledging the dangers within.”

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Poem Reading: “Are you bringing fruits, plants, seeds”

[04:04] - [05:55]

Karen Llagas’s poem is read in full by Smith, highlighting the surreal and sometimes absurd questions at borders:

• The poem lists items (“fruits, plants, seeds, animals, disease agents, snails, soil”), then subverts the list to include metaphor:
  • “O border agent, buffed and blushing / monsters are portable too, the one Hollywood imported…”
• The poet drifts between bureaucratic questioning and personal memory, blurring the lines between required declarations and private longing:
  • “Forgive me, I must have been daydreaming / of pounded rice sweetened with crab fat. I am looking at you / and thinking fondly of red, necessary agent to other colors.”
• The poem closes on a political note:
  • “Do you know a rosebud that refuses to bloom is called a bullet? / How many flowers now spangle our streets, dear agent, / because our country is a clenched fist?”
  • And, finally, “Oh, but I have more to declare.”

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• [01:29] Maggie Smith:
  “These are nothing but innocuous anecdotes. The banana and the mace. I didn't feel much anxiety either time because I wasn't in danger of getting into real trouble. I was a white American woman entering another majority white country.”
• [03:29] Maggie Smith:
  “Today's poem looks at the anxiety and the absurdity of America. How many people seem fixated on the dangers outside our borders without acknowledging the dangers within.”
• [05:45] Karen Llagas (as read by Maggie Smith):
  “Do you know a rosebud that refuses to bloom is called a bullet? / How many flowers now spangle our streets, dear agent, / because our country is a clenched fist?”
• [05:55] Karen Llagas (as read by Maggie Smith):
  “Oh, but I have more to declare.”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:06 – 02:27]: Maggie’s customs anecdotes (banana, mace, contrasting experiences)
• [02:28 – 03:28]: Reflection on the anxieties of customs, especially for immigrants
• [03:29 – 04:03]: Framing of poem and its themes
• [04:04 – 05:55]: Full reading of "Are you bringing fruits, plants, seeds"
• [05:45 – 05:55]: Dramatic, reflective closing lines of the poem

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Episode Tone & Style

The episode is gentle and contemplative, with Maggie Smith’s calm narration inviting both empathy and introspective wonder. The poem shifts fluidly between the practical realities and metaphoric resonances of crossing borders, combining humor, seriousness, and subtle political critique.

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Summary for Non-Listeners

Maggie Smith uses personal border-crossing anecdotes to open a conversation about privilege and the greater burdens placed on marginalized travelers. She introduces and reads Karen Llagas’s poem, which grounds the listener in the poetry of difficult transitions and the loaded questions at national borders. The episode’s heart lies in the recognition of visible and invisible obstacles, and in the poetic assertion: there’s always “more to declare.”

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Transcript

[A]

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[B]

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[C]

I'm Maggie Smith, and this is the Slowdown Several years ago, I flew to Ireland for a literary festival. I remember entering customs and immigration when I landed and having a banana confiscated from my backpack. I'd bought it at the airport in the US but had forgotten about it by the time I'd reached Ireland. Knowing me, the candy and salty snacks I'd bought for the long flight didn't get forgotten. I had no idea that certain agricultural products like plants, fruits, nuts and seeds are restricted and must be declared when traveling internationally. It turns out you can't just bring a banana from one country into another. I did know, however, that you can't carry mace into Canada. I learned that in the mid-1990s when Canadian border Patrol made me sign over the canister that hung on my key ring. My college friends and I were driving across the border from Michigan into Ontario, eager to kick off spring break, and my contraband held us up for a bit. These are nothing but innocuous anecdotes. The banana and the mace. I didn't feel much anxiety either time because I wasn't in danger of getting into real trouble. I was a white American woman entering another majority white country. But when citizens of other countries arrive here in the United States passing through customs and immigration at the airport, the interviews with customs officials can be anxiety producing. Officials ask the traveler a series of questions, including where they are coming from, what the purpose of their trip is, where they are staying, how long they plan to stay in the US and if they have anything to declare. I'm sure it's a worrisome process for many people, regardless of the political climate, but I think it's even more worrisome under administrations that are hostile toward immigrants and non white travelers and in times that feel fraught, like right now. Today's poem looks at the anxiety and the absurdity of America. How many people seem fixated on the dangers outside our borders without acknowledging the dangers within. This is a poem by Karen Yagas. Are you bringing fruits, plants, seeds, animals, disease agents, snails, soil, O border agent, buffed and blushing monsters are portable too, the one Hollywood imported, the one wild and winged and cleaved at the waist. She would travel her tendrilled tongue across your stone wall abs to reach the soft liver, her hunger a murder. What is the value of all the articles that will remain in the United States? I must have heard you say particles, which is only partly what we are, since we are also waves reporting back to the moon. Forgive me, I must have been daydreaming of pounded rice sweetened with crab fat. I am looking at you and thinking fondly of red, necessary agent to other colors. It's 5:40am we are both hungry and my advice is bread. Do you know a rosebud that refuses to bloom is called a bullet? How many flowers now spangle our streets, dear agent, because our country is a clenched fist? Step in front of the camera. Try not to smile. Oh, but I have more to declare. The Slowdown is a production of American Public Media in partnership with the Poetry Foundation. To get a poem delivered to you daily, go to slowdownshow.org and sign up for our newsletter. And find us on Instagram at slowdownshow and [e-mail].

[D]

Hi, I'm Deborah Treisman, fiction editor of the New Yorker and host of the New Yorker Fiction Podcast. On the podcast, I ask a great contemporary writer to select a favorite story from the magazine's almost hundred year archive to read and discuss. Together, we delve into the story, exploring its themes, its style, and what makes fiction work. You can listen to authors like Ottessa Moshfegh talk about why we write story.

[C]

Or attaching a story, or creating a story. Is this inclination that we all have.

[D]

To stop spinning and you can hear writers like George Saunders discuss the nature.

[E]

Of storytelling on the first read. You accept these things as descriptions and they make you see the scene, but every line is a chance to inflect the reader's mind.

[D]

You'll discover new favorite authors and read old favorites in new ways. Episodes of the New Yorker Fiction Podcast are released on the 1st of every month. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.