Note: A tanka is a Japanese poetry form that comprises 5 lines, with 5 syllables in the 1st and 3rd lines, and 7 syllables in the 2nd, 4th and 5th. Historically, tanks were for lovers and for warriors, but today they function for just about anything. Fairly popular form, but obviously not as loved as haikus. No less is the Tanka worthy though IMO.

[1] Inside of man’s sweat
Dreams osmose and vanish in
The wry atmosphere;
Hatred for derivatives:
Repulsion of the cosmos.

[2] Only in comfort
Does man know what he’s doing.
What behooves mankind
Magnetizes his return
To lesser states of quanta,

[3] Says the mythos of
Nihilistic atheism.
According to whom
Reincarnation is the
Lion King’s circle of life––

[4] Nothing ever dies––
At least nothing may vanish;
sugar in coffee;
Even dead skin feeds spacetime
Which expands recursively.

[5] What is dark matter?
Bosons with no spin or spark?
Higgs mechanism?
Are you better off knowing
Death is inescapable?

[6] One day all will fold.
Doubt in the apocalypse
Is for sugared fools.
No higher power’s needed
To know one day we’ll be fucked.

#Poetry #art #tanka