What you need to know about Iguanodons
(well, no, you don’t need to know at all, of course)
the duckbilled Hadrosaurs in particular,
is that unlike any other avian, they had a jaw mechanism
that moved for munching. That evolved mutation
allowed them to chew their food—eat on the run.
That is largely why the family was so successful for so long—
some thousand thousand years. Serene efficiency.
What would a mechanism like that—a bird that chewed—
have allowed their varied species to evolve toward?
Bad news for insignificant mammals, I suspect,
who could not have kept up with the feeding technology.
As to your question of my own appetites and relations:
Carol teases me about how long I chew my food,
my response being that I like to taste what I’m eating,
like my English grandmother, who cooked to my taste.
*
We are meditative eaters, we Iguanodons.
One day perhaps, our jaws will give us speech.
Speech will allow us imagination graced in time.
Would another 100,000,000 years invite our song and soul?
How many years do humans have left to sing your blab?
