KARLO SEVILLA

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.