Hunger strike

Neuroscientists now say,
our guts shrank
as our brains grew-
in finite-ness of our Energy,
due to our limited potential.

(1. the maximum energy output
is metabolically capped
2. larger brains accompany
smaller intestines in primates)

Have you heard that we only use ten percent
of our wetware? A grey area, I guess.

(Our brain is at best two percent of our total body mass,
yet devours twenty percent of our energy -at rest)

For better or worse, without any reception
or honeymoon, we are wedded to this
precious ratio for the next
few billion years it seems...

The smarter we get,
the harder it ALL becomes to digest.

Repetition can find and (sometimes will)
correct errors such as duplication, repetition
and redundancy.
(Try, try, try again)

Do I look good in these genes?
The smarter we get,
the harder it becomes to fit in
to our thinking caps
with all these insatiable cravings

to consume (us).

(This poem was inspired by the article "How Humans Evolved Supersize Brains" featured on Quanta Nov. 2015)


Painting by Gustav Wentzel, 'Breakfast II' c. 1885 in [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.