A pretty blonde researcher
was observing, from a “blind”,
some Silverback Gorillas-
among the final of their kind.
The senior of the silverbacks,
his back turned towards the” blind”,
was communicating with his troop
with gestures much like sign.
“She who is observing us
is a member of that tribe
who fell from grace with Heaven
and was banished far and wide.”
“They were banished from this Eden,
and confounded in their speech.
They then made war upon each other
and have never once known peace”
“Observe, in them, their arrogance,
they think themselves evolved,
Yet they are apes that practice war
and ****** their own kind”
“A gorilla child knows not but love
and tenderness in kind.
Where there is many a human child
left neglected on the vine.”
From elsewhere in the Jungle came
the shouts of evil men.
Poachers of the coarsest sort
with Silverbacks in mind.
“Disperse my sons and daughters.
It’s time to flee and hide
from those who seek our hides and meat
to sanctuary, hie.”
The silverback then beat his chest
and, to buy the others time,
charged against those evil men
and, for his children, died.
Time passed before the searchers
came upon the blind
where the murdered Dian Fossey lay
where the Silverback had died.
Poachers want no witnesses
to their theft of meat and hide
They left with her the severed hands
of one not kin but kind.
A poem about Dian Fossey, murdered by poachers while studying the culture of the great Apes. For poetic purposes I have imagined the Apes to possess a language based on sign language. This has happened in captivity and is not beyond the grasp of their considerable intelligence.