Batang Toru dam and the Tapanuli orang utan

This rain forest

drowned

a new species of orang utan,
Sumatran tigers
and so many others
we barely know

drowned

for the sake of electricity
in a place that has enough
in a world that needs
to learn to consume less.

By the time
the striking children
will be old enough
to save us

it will be too late

we will all have drowned.

© Juliet Wilson

World’s rarest orangutan under threat in Indonesia after court battle against dam fails

How the Batang Toru megadam threatens a new orangutan species with extinction

Juliet Wilson is a writer, crafter, adult education tutor and conservation volunteer, based in Edinburgh UK. Her writing has been published widely, most recently in Mslexia. She blogs at http://craftygreenpoet.blogspot.com and tweets @craftygreenpoet.

Death and the Cucumber

I learned young not to trust cucumbers -
their going off so soon, their after-taste.

I only eat them fresh from the garden -
quality assured and as local as it gets.

While Spanish cucumbers feed Europe
in a crazy trade of vegetables

and part of me is not surprised
at the sickness that results.

© Juliet Wilson

E. coli cucumber scare: Cases 'likely to increase'
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Juliet is a poet, adult education tutor and editor of Bolts of Silk