The orangutan flashes her rust
red coat from the top of the moist
broadleaf forest as she sways,

branch to branch, her coal-hard
muscles ripple like exposed
roots. Meals of figs, flowers

& jackfruit, she rarely
forages the jungle floor. She sips
rain water from holes

in trees, fashions a makeshift
umbrella from a leaf. A twig
turns to a tool to ease

seeds out of hardshell
fruit. We say we don’t
want to harm her

as we carve roads deep
into her rainforest craving
palm oil & lumber, ignite

fires that quickly burn
to flat, making way for quick
construction. From her high

up nest of broken
branches & thick, fallen
leaves, she gapes at us.