All debts that I know of are settled, and now it’s sunset and I’m all alone in a hut by the sea,
beer in hand while standing by the open window, wife all by herself in the city,
our children all grown with families of their own.
Outside, an old fisherman, solitary and afloat in his boat,
repeatedly casts his net where no fish swim, and every time he pulls it up empty,
it’s as if he’s dragging a drowned man by the arm.
Above, the moon glides by, and seeing her face mirrored by the sea,
brushes her forehead against a cloud to nudge a wayward ray of light into place.
Karlo Sevilla, from Quezon City, Philippines, is the author of the full-length poetry collection, Metro Manila Mammal (Some Publishing 2018), and the chapbook, You (Origami Poems Project 2017). Twice nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology, his poems appear in Philippines Graphic, Small Orange, Voicemail Poems, Blognostics, detritus, Kitaab, and others. He is currently studying for the Certificate in Literature and Creative Writing in Filipino program at the Center for Creative Writing - Polytechnic University of the Philippines. He is a member of the Rat’s Ass Review online poetry workshop.
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