Forehead Teeth

Science Sonnets

Helodus simplex, an ancestral ratfish. Artwork © Ray Troll 2018

Yes, seriously. There’s a deep-sea sickie
Some people call a “ghost shark” on whose brow
There perches a preposterous doohickey
Called a “tenaculum” which some-odd-how
Has grown a set of teeth. These he employs
To clamp down adamantly on his mate
To make sure she endures (if not enjoys)
The consummation of their near-blind date.
Ghost sharks (aka “ratfish” or “chimaeras”)
Do all their business in the darkest places,
But granted half a chance to glance in mirrors
I’m sure they’d shudder at their freakish faces.
We’re human, and it’s spooky to imagine us
With forehead teeth, bug-eyed and cartilaginous.

—Henry Rathvon

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