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.



A collection of quotations from Manhattan Project physicists on the occasion of the first ever atomic explosion, the Trinity Test in Los Alamos in 1945. Lines attributed to Richard Feynman, Bob Wilson and J. Robert Oppenheimer. 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.



A whole tweet from Reverend Richard Coles, 14 May 2012. Submitted by Gabriel Smy.

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.