Bio
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). Twice nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology -by Ariel Chart in 2018 and Collective Unrest in 2019 -he currently has more than a hundred poems published in various literary magazines worldwide, among them, Philippines Graphic, Shot Glass Journal, Small Orange, Boned: A Collection of Skeletal Writings, and Rigorous. He currently studies for the Certificate in Literature and Creative Writing in Filipino program of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
Karlo Sevilla
High Noon at the Manila Metro Rail Transit - Kamuning Station
Train conked out again, halfway before this station.
Thirty minutes waiting, sweating, and standing fifth in line
on boarding platform.
Janitress, five meters to my right, mops the gray floor
to and fro.
Peripheral vision starts to play tricks on me:
Every time she wipes towards the railway, it's as if a hand reaches
for the right elbow of the man in front of me.
Isa...Dalawa...Tatlo...
I want to beg her to stop, as the malfunctioning trains are wont to do
in-between stations.