Get
To Know
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The Orang-utan
Orang-utans have brown and rust-colored shaggy fur and weigh an average
of 50 kg to 90 kg. They live in tropical, swamp and mountain forests,
where they eat fruit, leaves and insects. They are arboreal and diurnal
and exhibit a sophisticated use of tools for gathering food. The orang-utan
was once found throughout Indo-China, Malaysia and north to China. In
historical times it has only been known from Sumatra and Borneo. About
100 years ago it was present in most of the rainforest areas on these
islands; however, it was never found in large numbers. It has declined
drastically since then. The major causes of the orang-utan's decline have
been their capture for the pet and zoo trade, especially the capture of
young, which usually involved killing the mother and habitat loss, especially
through permanent conversion to oil-palm plantations and for logging.
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What I Think About When I Think About George
W. Bush
by
Andrew Rihn
is a boy named Brandon
from my high school.
He was mainstreamed
but everyone knew
he had some learning
disabilities. One idea
that he did understand
was that jocks were cool,
and being close to them
was almost as good
as being cool yourself,
even if getting close meant
just being their towel boy.
The jocks knew this logic,
too. One day they told
Brandon that it was cool
to swallow snuff, rather
than just pack it in your
lip the way they did. So
of course Brandon followed
those steps, the brittle music
of their laughter playing
in the background. And
he got sick by third period,
had to be taken to the school
nurse, had to be sent home.
And Brandon never told
anyone why, because he
knew the logic of cool
began, and ended,
with his silence.
Andrew Rihn is a 25 year old poet and student living in
Canton, OH. His political poems have appeared in, or are forthcoming from,
CounterPunch, Nov 3rd Club, MR Zine, Dissident
Voice, New Verse News, Blue Collar Review, Labor,
and Breadcrumb Scabs.
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The
Orang-utan
- Issue Five