Starstruck

Glossary Entry: Stark Verse

An extremely spare or “stark” form of poetry, popular as a form of expression among those of the cybernetic persuasion, which always follows the rule: Seven lines, one syllable per line, except for line five, which is always the two syllable question/statement, “Who Cares (?)” Example:

you!
we
die.
yes.
who cares?
i
can’t

Al 10, the Andromedicone rogue philosopher who is said to have first popularized the form, and is rumored to have invented it, says of stark verse, “It is the sound of android thought slapping human flesh.”