As sons of Chordatus grew
Their bloodlines strong and true,
And Annelon's children spread
Their segments widespread,
The sons of Ambulus sought
The greatness they had fought
To achieve through patient art
And wisdom of the heart.
While sons of Chordatus learned
To swim as hearts burned,
The sons of Ambulus found
Their way was to be bound
As one with nature's way,
Fishing night and day.
They started much the same
As Chordatus' noble name.
But Hemichus, Ambulus' son,
Built his proboscis one
Day long to serve his need.
Half-cord would be his creed.
His cord was only half,
His brain on nature's behalf
Was also halfway made—
Thus Hemichordates stayed.
Hemichus bore two sons:
Acorn when day begun
And Oak, his brother strong,
Who lived his whole life long.
Acorn lived as worm
Through ocean's every term.
But Oak lived as a tree
Rooted eternally.
Oak bore two sons in time:
Biscarpon, strong and prime,
And Pterobronk his twin,
With different discipline.
Pterobronk became the sire
Of forms that would aspire
To heights in ocean blue:
Graptolites he grew,
And Pterobranches too,
Colonial and true.
Like trees beneath the sea
They lived quite happily.
Biscarpon built with care
A skeleton to wear
Of limestone white and bright
To armor him for fight.
Biscarpon bore two more:
Ctenocyston to explore
The seafloor dark and deep,
And Cincton, who would keep
His gill slits pumping well
Through his armored shell.
Water flowed through his frame
To catch fish in his name.
While Ctenocyston crawled
Where ocean's floor enthralled,
Cincton pumped and fished
For everything he wished.
Protected by his mail
His fishing would not fail.
Through gill slits water flowed
Where tiny fishes showed.
Cincton begat Soluton,
A strange and bold one.
One arm he extended out
With tubes that had no doubt
Inflatable and long
To make his fishing strong.
His left side took control
While right side paid the toll.
His right side shriveled small
While left ruled over all.
Asymmetry was born
That bright and fateful morn.
Soluton begat
Helicoplacus, begat
With arms that multiplied
By three on every side.
No bilateral form
Could weather this storm
Of change that swept his line—
Triradial design
He took upon his frame,
A form without a name
That none had seen before
In all primeval lore.
Helicoplacus took the shape
That let his line escape
The ancient symmetry
For new geometry.
Helicoplacus wed
Fair Adria-Esther, led
By love both true and strong
To sing their mating song.
Together they built low
A city's five-fold glow
Upon the rocks below
Where ocean currents flow.
Pentus was their son
When their work was done.
Five-sided was his way,
His form from that day.
The sons of Pentus grew
Both numerous and true.
Great numbers they became
With pentamerous fame.
Pentus begat Stromatos,
Who built like great kratos
His strength in five-fold form
Through every ocean storm.
Stromatos begat Lepidos,
Who like Soluton chose
To extend his arms once more
Along the ocean floor.
Ambulacra arms he made
In water's bright parade.
These arms would pump and flow
With life from head to toe.
Lepidos begat Felbabka,
Who built his strange cabka
Of plates arranged with care
In patterns everywhere.
Felbabka begat Echidna,
The stalked one, quite a
Sight with spiny skin
That glowed from deep within.
Echidna was the mother
Of children like no other:
The great Echinoderms
Who live through all terms.
Her daughters were sea lilies
That bloomed like water lilies
And dominated seas
With graceful artistry.
Invulnerable to attack
Their cities bore no lack
Of beauty or of might—
A wondrous, flowery sight.
Floating cities they built
Without any guilt
Upon the ocean floor
Like gardens evermore.
Their great cities were
The greatest ever there
In all the ancient time
When ocean was in prime.
Today we see only
Ruins sad and lonely
Of their once mighty home
Beneath the ocean foam.
But in times past they ruled
As none before had schooled
The art of living well
In ocean's deepest dell.
From half-cord Hemichus
To great Echidna thus
The line of Ambulus
Grew glorious.
The hemichordates showed
How nature's garden flowed
From simple worm-like start
To complex living art.
The graptolites and more
Pterobranches explore
Colonial living true
In waters deep and blue.
The early echinoderms
Found through all their terms
That symmetry could change
Through evolution's range.
From bilateral design
To triradial line
To five-fold form complete—
No other has this feat.
The son of Ambulus
Found glory glorious
Not through swimming fast
But through forms that last.
Their calcium carbonate
Made them fortunate
With armor strong and true
That would see them through
The trials of the sea
Through all eternity.
Their spiny skin would show
How beauty's gardens grow.
In every starfish arm
That moves without alarm,
In every sea urchin's spine
That shows pentamerous design,
In every sea lily's grace
That held the ancient place
Of ruler of the deep
Where ocean's secrets keep,
Remember Ambulus' line
And how their design
Became the five-fold way
That lasts until today.
The sons of Ambulus
Were not so glorious
In swimming strength and speed
As Chordatus' noble creed.
But in their patient art
Of living part by part
With nature's gentle way
They found their destined day.
Their fishing was their gift,
Through ocean's every drift
They learned to be at one
From dusk until the sun.
And so from humble start
They mastered nature's art
Of living in the sea
In perfect harmony.
From Hemichus the half
To Echidna's behalf
Of all echinoderm kind,
The line of thoughtful mind
Found its way to shine
In pentamerous design.
Five-fold symmetry
Through all eternity.
The ancient cities fell
But still their stories tell
Of how the patient way
Can win the final day.
In gardens of the sea
They lived most gracefully.
Their floating cities bright
Were truly wondrous sight.
Though now in ruins lie
Their glory will not die.
The five-fold legacy
Lives through eternity.