Most of us, she says,
walk by stepping into the
space in front. I want
you to think about walking
out of the space behind you.
Tag: tanka
Trinity Tanka
I am become Death
We made a terrible thing
Destroyer of Worlds
What are you moping about?
We’re all sons of bitches now.
(Manhattan Project physicists Richard Feynman, Bob Wilson and J. Robert Oppenheimer on the first atomic explosion, the 1945 Trinity Test. Submitted by Daniel Galef)
Ultraconserved
You, hear me! Give this
fire to that old man. Pull the
black worm off the bark
and give it to the mother.
No spitting in the ashes.
Ancient words, according to Linguists identify 15,000-year-old ‘ultraconserved words’, The Washington Post, 16 May 2013. ‘And’ removed from last line to satisfy tanka form. Submitted by Gabriel Smy.
Monday the fourteenth of May
A tanka
Urchins clustering
like barnacles to the stilled
rails. We wait. The
tannoy clicks on then clicks off
without an announcement. We wait.
Slip
A tanka
Daddy, put it in
the microcave. The micro
cave? Oh, sorry, I’ve
not said that since my early
sixies. I mean microwave.
A conversation with my 7-year-old daughter, 11 June 2011. Submitted by Neil.
Verbatim Poetry 