Nascent CO photofragment vibrational energy distributions from the UV photolysis of C/sub 2/ O/sub 2/ are measured by time-resolved carbon monoxide laser absorption spectroscopy. Photodissociation of C/sub 3/O/sub 2/ at 193 and 249 nm produces CO(nu = 0-5) and CO(nu = 1-3), respectively. The CO photofragment is rotationally excited to some extent in both cases. A statistical model for energy disposal fits the experimentally determined CO vibrational energy distributions for 193- and 249-nm photolyses. A Franck-Condon model for vibrational energy partitioning cannot reproduce the experimental observations. The data suggest that following absorption of a UV photon C/sub 3/O/sub 2/ internally converts to the electronic ground state and then dissociates, yielding C/sub 2/O(a/sup 1/..delta..) and CO(X/sup 1/..sigma../sup +/). The photofragmentation dynamics of C/sub 3/O/sub 2/ are compared with those of the quasi-linear polyatomics, CH/sub 2/CO and NCNO.