Natural Childbirth
Borneo. A metal cage. Somewhere in the jungle.
I watched a rescued female orang-utan give birth;
watched as she nibbled through the hefty cord that joined them,
saw how she thoroughly yet gently cleaned its fur.
Large limpid eyes regarded those who stood around them
but nobody distracted her from this instinctive task.
I thought of a human birth, contrasted it with this one:
sterile conditions, pain relief and mask.
Nothing came between them, this mother and her baby,
no-one took the infant creature off to be appraised.
For four or maybe six years she'll keep her offspring with her,
teaching it to be an orang, learning orang ways:
what to eat or not and how to build a nest for sleeping,
things it's important for the little one to know.
It strikes me that education has its priorities
but how to be human comes spectacularly low.