FOR DIAN FOSSEY

She sat among dark lives on mountains,
among those who do not change.
To choose another species over one's own

isn’t natural, or admirable, exactly—
but who doesn’t have some flaw?
Hers was the size of the gap between human and gorilla.

When she was on the TV show
with the famous, well-dressed comedian,
she was relaxed only when she spoke gorilla.

"Naoom, m-nwowm, manauum-naomm, naoumm."
The gaze of the mountain gorilla simply rips your soul open.
She’s buried among gorillas.

It was a rage she was in.
It was a love she was in.
To give one’s life to sit down among the animals
is a strange, great thing.

Howard Nelson