That night in the open field,
they inflicted all sorts
of violence against me,
short of murder.
I seek justice.
But many of the witnesses
were dying drunk;
the few sober
were bribed the day after.
And the moon above
I cannot unmute.
Karlo Sevilla is the author of the full-length poetry collection Metro Manila Mammal (Some Publishing, 2018), and his poems appear in Philippines Graphic, Radius, Unlikely Stories Mark V, Collective Unrest, I am not a silent poet, Tuck Magazine, and elsewhere. In his spare time, he volunteers for the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (Solidarity of Filipino Workers).