“An orangutan appeared to treat a wound with medicine from a tropical plant”
the news story read,
and after my momentary amazement,
I wondered if an orangutan knew to do this,
knew exactly what to do to heal himself,
what plant surrounding him was for this purpose,
how is it human beings spend our entire lives looking to others,
listening to others, seeking help from others,
when all the while, is it really all that different for us?
Do we, like the orangutan, know intrinsically
what will heal and what will hurt?
We spend so much time trying to be human,
maybe our human-ness, is the least of what
we should tap into…
Tattooed Daughter 