Esther was the daughter true
In the tenth generation's view
Of Lily the Echidna,
Dutrus' daughter, fina
Who traded bilateral
For pentaradial
Design, and thus began
Evolution's plan
For five-fold symmetry
Throughout eternity.
Esther saw before
Her eyes from shore to shore
Innumerable hosts
Of planktonic ghosts—
The planimals so small
Who answered feeding's call.
To feed off them she tried
With hunger as her guide.
And from her loins she bore
Two daughters to explore
The seas in their own way:
Crinosa, night and day,
And Blastosa the strong
Who lived her whole life long.
Blastosa built a city
Beyond all that's gritty
With many brachioles
Around ambulacra's goals.
Each ambulacrum bright
Was ringed throughout the night
And day with arms so small
That answered feeding's call.
Blastosa became mother
To forms like no other:
The Blastoids were her line
With architecture fine.
Her daughters spread so wide
With pentamerous pride
Throughout the ancient seas
Like blossoms on the trees.
Crinosa begat two:
Lily Stone so true
And Luther, strong and free,
Who lived beside the sea.
Lily Stone became
Ancestress of fame
Of Crinoids everywhere
Who danced with graceful flair.
Together Crinoids bright
And Blastoids in their might
Spread all across the seas
Like flowers in the breeze.
They became the wall
That answered empire's call:
The bulwark strong and true
Of Ordovician view.
The empire found in them
Its strongest living stem
That held against all foes
Through calm and storm's throes.
But Luther was not pleased
With leisure life that ceased
To challenge and to grow—
He felt he had to go
Beyond what others did
Though comfort life forbid
Such struggle and such strife
In his adventurous life.
In youth he grew a stalk
Like others of his flock,
But as he came of age
He broke from tradition's cage.
Contrary to his sister
Who'd never be a mister
But lived the gentle way
Of filter-feeding's day,
He used his arms to walk
Like some strange kind of stalk
That moved across the ground
Where freedom could be found.
His tube feet crawled with might
Both day and through the night
Upon the ocean floor
From here to distant shore.
He struggled, but was free
To live beside the sea
In his own chosen way
From night into the day.
To this day Starfish keep
This tradition deep
Within their very souls:
To play mobile roles.
Luther bore two sons:
Asteros when begun
The day, and Echinos
Whose different spirit knows
Innovation's call
Above tradition's thrall.
Asteros was the one
Who when his work was done
Stayed traditional and true
To all his fathers knew.
But Echinos built new
Ways to make dreams come true.
Echinos built compact
His city, and in fact
Used only tube feet small
To move and heed the call
Of wandering desire.
He never would aspire
To build a stalk like dad—
Innovation made him glad.
Asteros and Echinos
Went to war (heaven knows
Why brothers had to fight
Throughout the day and night).
Each with a million sons
Arranged when day begun
In armies vast and wide
With warfare as their guide.
The ancient battles rage
Across history's page
As photos still can show
From eons long ago.
Asteros begat
Two sons: first he begat
Starfy, strong and true,
And Ophis, through and through
A warrior in his heart
Who played the fighting part
With vigor and with might
Both day and through the night.
Echinos bore two more:
Orbos to explore
And Britta, daughter fair
Who danced without a care.
But Ophis and fair Britta
Broke the war's bitter
Cycle of revenge
And chose to make a change.
They married and became
Partners without shame
Despite their fathers' war
That raged from shore to shore.
From their union came
Children of great fame:
The Brittle Stars so bright,
Centralized in might.
Muscular creatures, they
Were machines in every way
Of strength and vigor great
Who never would abate
Their energy and power
Throughout each passing hour
Of their devoted lives
Where motion always thrives.
Serpentus, Ophis' son,
And Baskette, when begun
The day from Britta's line,
Both had designs so fine.
Serpentus became sire
Of forms whose desire
Was slithering with grace
Across the ocean's face.
The Serpent Stars he made
In ocean's light and shade
Would slither with precision
Through every dark decision
Of where to hunt their prey
Throughout the night and day.
Their tube feet were not meant
For moving, but were bent
To other tasks at hand
While muscles through the land
Of sea would make them glide
With ocean as their guide.
But Baskette was unique—
Her arms would always seek
To branch a million-fold
As stories have been told.
She ate all plankton small
Who answered ocean's call
With arms that branched so wide
Like nets on every side.
She became ancestress
Of Basket Stars no less
Remarkable than she
In their complexity.
Their arms branch out like trees
To catch what ocean sees
Fit to provide as food
In their planktonic mood.
Starfy begat the race
Of Starfish in every place:
Decentralized cities
Beyond all that's gritty
That may regenerate
From parts, however great
Or small the piece remains
When damage life constrains.
The Starfish are the lords
Who rule with iron swords
Their empires far and wide
With predatory pride.
They are vicious hunters
Who never are confronters
Of weakness, but instead
Fill other hearts with dread.
That's why they have five hands
To rule their ocean lands
With fingers made of might
Both day and through the night.
Echinos bore two sons:
Aristotle when begun
The day, and Cucus strong
Who lived his whole life long.
Aristotle became
The father of great fame
Of Sea Urchins everywhere
Who graze with greatest care.
Great grazers of the seas
They move with graceful ease
Across the ocean floor
From here to distant shore.
Aristotle built with care
A jaw beyond compare
Of five teeth strong and bright—
He called it his "light"
His lantern, for it brought
Light to life and thought.
To this day we call
This jaw by name of all
His choosing: "Aristotle's
Lantern" never throttles
Our wonder at the way
He lit his every day.
His great-granddaughter fair
Was Sandy, everywhere
Known as ancestress
Of Sand Dollars no less
Beautiful than she
In their complexity.
Flat and round they lie
Beneath the ocean sky.
Cucus became the sire
Of forms whose desire
Was recycling the waste
That others had misplaced.
The Sea Cucumbers great
Accept as their fate
To be the janitors
Of ocean's corridors.
The great recyclers who
Work their whole life through
In ocean's deepest parts
With dedicated hearts.
And when their enemies
Threaten, then they seize
Upon a strategy
Most shocking to see:
They spill their guts with might
To put their foes to flight.
What seems like weakness shows
The power to dispose
Of threats in their own way
That works both night and day
To keep them safe and sound
Though strange it may be found.
And so the Sons of grand
Echidna through the land
Of sea built their great
Civilization's fate
To heights beyond all speech
That mortals' words can reach
With five sides to each story
In all their living glory.
From Esther's feeding start
To Luther's rebel heart
That broke from leisure's chain
To walk through joy and pain,
From Asteros and his brother
Echinos, and no other
Way to settle their debate
Than war to seal their fate,
From Ophis and fair Britta
Who made the war less bitter
By choosing love instead
Of letting hatred spread,
The echinoderms show
How families can grow
From single pentamerous
Design so glorious
Into forms so diverse
That no single verse
Could capture all their ways
Throughout their living days.
From stalked sea lilies
To mobile enemies
Who hunt with five-armed might,
From grazers day and night
To recyclers who clean
The ocean's vast marine
Environment with care
For all who dwell there,
The five-fold symmetry
Lives through eternity
In every starfish arm
And every sea urchin's charm.
In every brittle star
That travels near and far
With muscles flexing strong
Throughout its whole life long,
In every crinoid's dance
And every basket's stance
With arms like trees spread wide
To catch the ocean's tide
Of plankton floating by
Beneath the starry sky,
The legacy lives on
From dusk until the dawn
Of Echidna's great choice
To let five be the voice
Of symmetry's design
Throughout the end of time.
From bilateral start
To pentamerous art
That rules the ocean floor
From mountain peak to shore,
The echinoderms remind
Us that the searching mind
That breaks from what is known
Can reap what it has sown
In innovations new
That see old dreams through
To heights beyond all thought
That wisdom ever brought.
Five sides to every tale,
Five arms that never fail,
Five teeth in every jaw,
Five points of nature's law
That guide the echinoderm
Through every living term
Of their existence here
Throughout each passing year.
In Luther's rebel choice
To let freedom be his voice,
In lovers ending war
Through peace worth living for,
In every innovation
Across each generation
That builds upon the past
To make new futures last,
The sons of Echidna teach
That heights within our reach
Are limited only by
Our willingness to try
To break from what we know
And let our spirits grow
Into forms yet unseen
In evolution's scene.
The Ordovician wall
They built will never fall
As long as seas contain
Their pentamerous reign.