Get
To Know
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 The
Silvery Lutung, also known as the silvered leaf monkey, is an Old
World arboreal monkey living in coastal, mangrove, and riverine forests
in Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, and Borneo. Its grey-tipped, dark brown
or black fur, gives it a uniform silvery appearance. The silvery lutung
is a specialist folivore, including a high proportion of leaves in its
diet. Silvery lutings are diurnal, and travel in groups of around 9-40
individuals with one adult male and many adult females communally caring
for infants. They rarely leave the trees, which provide them protection
from ground-dwelling predators, and rapidly flee if threatened. The entire
group shelters in a single tree at night. Local predators able to feed
on silvery lutungs include leopards, tigers, humans, dholes, and some
large snakes. The silvery lutung is classed as Near Threatened , for its
habitat is heavily threatened throughout its range by logging and the
development of oil plantations. The species is also threatened by hunting
for meat and by capture for the pet trade. Likewise, because they are
unusually susceptible to human diseases, including AIDS, they have therefore
been widely used in medical research.
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The Bomb Maker
By
Ken Poyner
The bomb maker lives two doors down.
His kitchen is on an opposite wall
But I worry nonetheless one day
Too much of this, too much of that,
And the whole floor could go, all
My accumulated wealth and memorabilia,
Perhaps even me,
A cloud of casual collateral damage.
The landlord pretends not to know.
The man pays his rent, never
Calls in a repair, hasn’t had
A party since moving in.
We imagine his bomb making may be
Aesthetic, simply an art, a collection
One day he will show at the gallery
Two blocks down, over the drug store:
All the bombs laid out, notes
About yield, chemical composition,
Identification for each etched
In calligraphy on the side, and all
The particular uses tagged frontispiece-
Anti-personnel, incendiary, vehicle
Buster, rat poison soaked
(So the target bleeds to death with
Otherwise survivable injuries).
He would be serious, welcome questions,
Greet everyone with a nod that hints recognition.
If the measure for good neighbors is lack
Of bother, he is a good neighbor:
Quiet, unseen, much better than the last,
Not likely to need a favor,
Not likely to think your business is his,
Not likely, casually or with any intent, to imagine
That the curious details of your life might one day matter.
Ken Poyner has had fiction of late in Corium and Kill Author,
and poetry in Adirondack Review, Medulla Review, Blue Collar
Review, Poet Lore and about forty other places. His wife is a world
class power lifter and the two together live a somewhat strange life in
the right hand bottom corner of Virginia. His book "Constant Animals",
42 unruly fictions, is $4.99 as an e-book and vendor links available at
www.kpoyner.com.
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The
Silvered Leaf Monkey
- Issue Nine