Just How Extreme Jaws Could Be

This is what life does on Earth.
It stumbles on to something,
Bilateral symmetry,

For example, perfectly
Unnecessary after
Hundreds of millions of years

Of other body designs,
And then, a while, goes crazy
Spewing out variations

On the fresh innovation,
Doesn’t matter what it was.
Take jaws. Eons without them,

Then placoderms everywhere.
Helmet-headed armor freaks
Like swimming cudgels, started

Repurposing gill arches
As bone-crunching, flesh-shredding
Archimedean nightmares

Of mouths. Jaws like drawers of teeth,
Jaw like crenellated beaks,
Jaws with hook-fanged overbites,

Jaws so underslung they looked
Like serving trays for the throat,
Half again the body’s length.

And then things settled a bit,
And the most extreme jaws lost.
Same thing later with leather

Wings for flying dinosaurs,
Fancy racks for big cervids,
Etc. Now humans

Have cropped up with unbridled
Riffs on the nongenetic
Information transmission trick.

Cultures are swanning around
With giant head ornaments,
Steel jaws, and shade-throwing wings.

Don’t expect them all to thrive
Or all to die. Efficient
Forms will cloud tomorrow’s nights.