The unleashed predators roam and preach:

a spade is a club is a diamond is a heart.

 

A few brave untruths and inclement weather,

march and sing outside roofs and walls.

 

Most watch, sleep, dream inside

flimsy shelters of sticks and straw.

 

All gazed at azure half of sky,

when behind rumbled a gathering storm.

 

Now the plagues will not just pass us by;

we are untethered on a slippery edge.

 

Perhaps they’ll cut us all to pieces,

but we shall forever hold our peace.

 

There’s convenience in indifference,

and cold comfort trumps conscience.

 

***

Karlo Sevilla is a freelance writer who lives in Quezon City, Philippines. His poems have appeared in Philippines Graphic, Radius, I am not a silent poet, Anti-Heroin Chic, Eunoia, Rat’s Ass Review, Wraith Infirmity Muses, an Origami Poems Project microchap, and elsewhere. He also volunteers for the labor group Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (Solidarity of Filipino Workers).