KARLO SEVILLA - POEMS

Karlo Sevilla writes from Quezon City, Philippines and is the author of two poetry collections: "Metro Manila Mammal" (Soma Publishing, 2018) and "You" (Origami Poems Project, 2017). He was a runner-up in Submittable's 2018 National Poetry Month poetry contest and more than a hundred of his poems appear in various literary journals and anthologies around the world. He also coaches wrestling, trains in Brazilian Luta Livre, and volunteers for the labor group Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (Solidarity of Filipino Workers). 

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My Minor Exigencies
​

​An itch neurotic on my nape
nags for what it needs. Nails
uncut, my fingers oblige, pawns
of the mind that yields. In the cold
shower, the strong soap stings
the claw-marks down my skin.
But it’s superficial. I’ll be fine
in an hour or two. Won’t deny me
sleep. Another epidermal irritation,
and I’d do it again. I look forward
to your warmth tonight. Won’t ask
where you’ve been. You know
that I take tenderness in lieu
of truth. Sometimes. Some nights.
When the body, not knowledge,
draws out my docile claws.
 

My Bedroom Door
​

​Perhaps a keener sense would have done me good:

To have heard, bat-like, the reluctant creaks as mousy squeaks,
and discerned the protracted countdown of the staccato ticks,
and thus avoided the hand that alternatingly turned the key
and pushed the lock (habitually till finally).


If I only knew that this hinged piece of wood sufficed 
to mechanize, magnify, and measure
all departures and temporary tenures,
then I…

Asphyxiation
​

It need not be having malevolent hands
clasped around your neck,
or being within the confines of a barrel: 

Dawn, and I witness
dew on leaf gasp,
tremble, upon formation.

Now, the winding river
slackens its current and moans,
pleads, to overcast sky
for more clearings, more hues of blue,
to breathe, to sigh... ​

A Den of Mannequins 
​

​This ain't no freeze dance.
Neither musical statues/
statue dance.
 
There's only music
and statues: no dance.
 
And they remain frozen,
whether the music plays
or dies.