1515: True Story by Camille T. Dungy

Summary

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The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

Episode 1515: "True Story" by Camille T. Dungy
Host: Maggie Smith
Date: May 14, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this reflective episode, host Maggie Smith draws from personal experience caring for an itinerant cat to introduce Camille T. Dungy’s poem "True Story." The central theme is about the many forms of love and care that emerge in a transient, interconnected world. Through a quiet narrative, the episode and the poem explore how simple acts—shared caretaking, mutual acceptance—can define relationships, even in their impermanence.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

Maggie Smith’s Personal Story & Bridging to the Poem

[01:06–02:55]

• Maggie Smith recounts her time teaching at Gettysburg College and staying in a colleague's house, tasked with watching over a cat named Gray.
• She observes Gray, an indoor-outdoor cat, often ignores his food bowl, only to discover he’s receiving treats from the senior living facility next door.
• Smith reflects on her temporary place in the cat's life, recognizing the larger system of care the animal navigates daily.
• This anecdote is used to frame the poem's core question: "What are the many possibilities of giving love in a temporary world?"

Poem Recitation: “True Story” by Camille T. Dungy

[02:55–06:40]

• Smith transitions smoothly to reading Dungy's poem, which mirrors her own experience with Gray by depicting a cat who splits her loyalty and affection between two households and two women.
• The poem explores the system that develops: each woman accepts the cat's divided affection, providing slightly different forms of care and comfort.
• Dungy’s narrative illustrates the ways love can be routine yet extraordinary, normalized yet nuanced by circumstance and personal history.
• The two caretakers are described almost as “sister wives, accepting, if not companionable, opening and offering everything when the cat came around.”
• The poem delicately raises challenging questions about love, mortality, and choice, weaving in the differing backgrounds and philosophies of the women involved.
  • One believes in universal connections: "in all things, even the small and patient snail, there are perceptible strings that tie each life to all others."
  • The other is shaped by a painful historical legacy (the drowning of a Black boy in Chicago), revealing how memory and context inform our relationships.
• As the cat approaches death, the women disagree:
  • One believes in minimizing suffering ("The woman from Chicago wanted to put her down quickly, keep her from all this suffering, she said."),
  • While the other values prolonging meaningful experience ("The other woman wanted not so much for her to live forever as for her to fully live every second of her allotted time.").

Reflections on Love, Care, and Mortality

[06:20–06:45]

• The argument between the women over the cat's end-of-life care becomes a metaphor for how people confront mortality and meaning.
• The poem concludes with life’s processes continuing—rain threatens trees, runners pass, the women quarrel their “divided driveway about how they’d prefer to die until she didn’t anymore.”
• Ultimately, the cat “continued eating in both the women’s houses,” suggesting that routines, connections, and small joys persist despite uncertainty and disagreement.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On divided affection:
  "The cat wandered between two women in one house. Kibble and clear water, sometimes bits of roast chicken, even sometimes translucent fish skin..."
  (Camille T. Dungy, 03:00)

• On temporary caretaking:
  "I was only a temporary part of that system, so I let it continue."
  (Maggie Smith, 02:35)

• On universal interconnectedness:
  "There are perceptible strings that tie each life to all others."
  (Camille T. Dungy, 05:05)

• On facing mortality:
  "They argued in their divided driveway about how they'd prefer to die, until she didn't anymore."
  (Camille T. Dungy, 06:15)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Personal story and introduction – 01:06–02:55
• Poem recitation ("True Story") – 02:55–06:40
• The cat’s ongoing journey; final reflection – 06:20–06:45

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Summary Reflection

The episode uses the everyday story of a shared cat to meditate on how love and care flourish even in transitory, imperfect arrangements. Through both prose and poetry, listeners are invited to contemplate how the ways we give and receive care—however divided or contingent—define the depth and endurance of our connections.

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Transcript

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[D]

I'm Maggie Smith and this is the Slowdown. When I graduated with my MFA more than 20 years ago now, I taught at Gettysburg College. The town was full of college students, plus a constant influx of tourists and history buffs who wanted to see the Civil War battlefields. I was hired on a one year appointment for an up and coming writer, which meant I had to find a place to live for that academic year. Luckily, a professor in another department was leaving for the year on a research sabbatical and she needed someone to stay in her house and take care of her cat. Gray was an inside, outside cat. He slept in the house at night, but he was free to roam during the day, mornings and nights. I noticed he barely touched his food bowl. At first I thought he was a picky eater, but then I saw what was happening. He would wander to the senior living facility behind the house where the residents fed him table scraps. Who wouldn't prefer chicken and dumplings over dry cat food? Gray had a good thing going. I was only a temporary part of that system, so I let it continue. Today's poem examines the many possibilities of giving love in a temporary world. True story by Camille T. Dungey the cat wandered between two women in one house. Kibble and clear water, sometimes bits of roast chicken, even sometimes translucent fish skin. That's the house that first called her its own. And for all those nights until she found the other woman, she'd purred there without asking for anything more. But I've already told you she found the other woman, whose house held the wondrous calm of no children a blessing. Wet food in the kitchen, catnip growing for her in the yard. The women came to be like sister wives, accepting, if not companionable opening and offering everything when the cat came around. For years this continued. They lived next door to each other, the women, on the wooded west slope of a mountain whose winding road runners like to climb. The cat lay her body down, first on one bed, then on another, until the arrangement settled into a system as unremarkable as love. One woman believed, as Isa believed, that in all things, even the small and patient snail, there are perceptible strings that tie each life to all others. The other woman was born in Chicago. There, the lake's current carried a black boy past some unmarked line and a mob on the white beach through rocks until the boy was no more. She didn't side with the mob, this woman, but she knew where they came from. She came from there, too. When the cat got sick, the woman from Chicago wanted to put her down quickly, keep her from all this suffering, she said. The other woman wanted not so much for her to live forever as for her to fully live every second of her allotted time. Meanwhile, winter rain threatened the shallow rooted eucalyptus on the hillside. Meanwhile, the runners still ran. The women argued in their divided driveway about how they'd prefer to die until she didn't anymore. The cat continued eating in both the women's houses. 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 slowdownshow and bluesky.downdownshow.org.

[E]

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