In northern Philippines, the death toll has risen to 66:
Almost the Number of the Beast.
Two more than the number of the wounded.
Ten more than the number of the missing
who are mostly gold miners and their families
trapped when a mountain slope
collapsed on the bunk house
where they sought refuge,
burying them alive.
The town mayor of Itogon said that the victims’
chance of survival is one percent.
There has to be an afterlife,
where there is no need for shelters
invincible to storms.
Where there are no storms.
Somewhere else in this life, all mansions
in gated communities
remain standing.
Not a single mine owner perished.
READ MORE
Philippines: Rescue efforts underway as Mangkut toll rises [Al Jazeera]
Typhoon Mangkut was the strongest storm this year. It ravaged Hong Kong and the Philippines [The Washington Post]
Karlo Sevilla is the author of the poetry collection, “Metro Manila Mammal” (Soma Publishing, 2018). He was a runner-up in Submittable’s 2018 National Poetry Month poetry contest and one of his poems is nominated by Ariel Chart for the 2018 Best of the Net Anthology. His poems have appeared in Philippines Graphic, Radius, The Ramingo’s Porch, Poetry24, and others. He currently studies for the Certificate in Literature and Creative Writing in Filipino program of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
