Three Poems by Karlo Sevilla

What I Have For You In This Garden

 

is something I can’t define but of this I’m certain:

if it is liquid, and a firefly sips and spits

a drop of it this darkest midnight,

this land will awaken to dawn’s

light — hours before sunrise.

 

And if this be solid matter,

a mote of this, upon touching

its first rose, will bleed the red

off its petals until you see a flotilla

of pale blooms adrift on a lake rippled by fires.

B(L)OOM!

 

A rose in full bloom

is a bomb,

mid-explosion:

her petals,

shrapnel;

her red

portends

the warm spill

of the kill.

 

 

No Resurrection

 

I utter,

“Rose from the dead”;

first word noun,

not verb.

The remains

remain

six feet

under.

 

Karlo Sevilla of Quezon City, Philippines is the author of the full-length poetry book “Metro Manila Mammal” (Soma Publishing, 2018) and the smaller collections “You” (Origami Poems Project, 2017) and “Outsourced! . . .” (Revolt Magazine, 2021). In 2018, his work was recognized among that year's Best of Kitaab, won runner-up in the Submittable-Centric Poetry Contest, and placed third in Tanggol Wika's DALITEXT poetry contest. In 2021, his poem made it to the shortlist of the annual Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition. His poems appear in Philippines Graphic, Philippines Free Press, Protean, DIAGRAM, Rigorous, and elsewhere. He is currently a student in the Associate in Arts program of the University of the Philippines Open University.