Inherited characteristics
That mindful chemistry
The Orangutan its innermost
True heredity
Are Doomed it seems
For it happens
that Palm oil is the way
Plantations are more lucrative
That is what they say
Allowed the space
Allowed the run
To fly up in the canopy
Searching for the sun
A creature with deep feeling
With emotions likely to
Be stronger than the shooters
Who have a mawkish view
Working for the palm oil
Merchants
The corporations who
Pay their measly wages
And just do what they do
Tear down all the forest trees
Slash and burn for fun
Annihilate the natural world
Before the day is done
Travelling in Borneo
Recently we heard
An Orangutan had been injured
How it had occurred
We were not sure
But drove to see
It took us through the night
As a wild life vet
I couldn’t believe
And knew it wasn’t right
It had been already rescued
And was laying in a cage
We thought it was a female
Its state was off the page
So thin and emaciated
Alive but frightened so
It had been shot 130 times
Something to know
Which actually turned my stomach
Wrenched into my soul
These animals are wonderful
They share all of our fears
They are so close to being
Human in their way
Looking into their deep set eyes
Why would they have to pay
We thought it was a female
But turned out to a boy
About five years it had managed
But not five years of joy
At least two machete
Wounds alas
And as skinny as could be
Found hanging near the river
Off what was a busted tree
Their experience is awful
Their instinct tells them they
Should be in the canopy
Every single day
They love to hang to swing to nest
The high tops are theirs
Responsive and so spirited
With the forests rich affairs
Oil palm is an anathema
A darkly sodden space
Where true life is extinguished
The clamour that we face
The colour and the energy
That The rainforests
create
Bursting with a life force
And in stead the awful fate
Of rats and the black cobras
And little else around
The gushing effusive forests
That once did so abound
Stocked with myriad life forms
Godly created souls
Torn and ripped to sunder
By selfish ugly trolls
So this handsomely beautiful red ape
Died that night despite
Us driving all those miles to see
It never regained its sight
A hopeless search for freedom
An inevitable desire
To search the bold wet canopy
And run from the palm oil fire.
To suffer the immensity
Of ugliness and rage
Overwhelmed and awestruck
Too much for them to gauge
The life is clearly being stolen
From them to acquire
Their precious trees
Their fruits and leaves
And be fodder for the fire
BBC STORY
One Paul Ramos
Wild life vet