fish-like thing appeared among the annelids one day.
It hadn't any parapods nor setae to display.
It hadn't any eyes nor jaws, nor ventral nervous cord,
But it had a lot of gill slits and it had a notochord.

     [bad word] 
    It's a long way from Amphioxus. It's a long way to us.
    It's a long way from Amphioxus to the meanest human cuss.
    Well, it's goodbye to fins and gill slits, and it's [bad word] lungs and hair!
    It's a long, long way from Amphioxus, but we all came from there.

It wasn't much to look at and it scarce knew how to swim,
And Nereis was very sure it [bad word] from him.
The mollusks wouldn't own it and the arthropods got sore,
So the poor thing had to burrow in the sand along the shore.

He burrowed in the sand before a crab could nip his tail,
And he said "Gill slits and myotomes are all to no avail.
I've grown some metapleural folds and sport an oral hood,
But all these fine new characters don't do me any good.

    [bad word] 

It sulked awhile down in the sand without a bit of pep,
Then he stiffened up his notochord and said, "I'll beat 'em yet!
Let 'em laugh and show their ignorance. I don't mind their jeers.       *
Just wait until they see me in a hundred million years.                      *

My notochord shall turn into a chain of vertebrae
And as fins my metapleural folds will agitate the sea.
My tiny dorsal nervous cord will be a mighty brain
And the vertebrates shall dominate the animal domain.

    [bad word] 

* note -- the two lines marked by asterisks are not the original words, which are:
   I've got more possibilities within my slender frame
   Than all these proud invertebrates that treat me with such shame. [bad word] /www [bad word] amphioxus.htm