KARLO SEVILLA
NOVEMBER 2, 2022
Desert Rain
Desert Rain
I turn the shower knob
and even the rush
of water is warm.
There’s itch in my throat
and I cough.
I aim and spit at the drain hole
but my mouth is feeble
in the attempt.
Spittle drips down my chin
and drops into the valley
that is my sternum.
It’s warmer than the tap water
and bursts into a stampede
of micro wild horses —
groinward.
Karlo Sevilla of Quezon City, Philippines is the author of the full-length poetry collection, “Metro Manila Mammal” (Soma Publishing, 2018). Shortlisted for the Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition 2021, his poems appear in Philippines Graphic, DIAGRAM, Small Orange, Liquid Imagination, Protean, The Sparrow’s Trombone, Defuncted, and elsewhere. His Twitter: @KarloSevilla2.