New Poems: Sanjeev Sethi

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Masochistic tendencies surface.
I fix a rash of Reels to teem with
couples who publicize their closeness.
Does it help to follow a priest
with no scruples?
 
When we distance ourselves
from portière
of protocols
we witness other pitfalls,
newer phizes.
 
Never test a relationship.
Rarely can it escape
an audit.
Excitement has an end:
Nub of temporal numbers.

Debacle

 

Behind the prepped ebullience, I grok 

something I can’t locate words for

but I see it in the wounded,

pushovers on their way 

to the slammer 

or during a perp walk. 

 

This bravado is like a boy 

chasing his school bus 

but missing it by a split second.

Notice his smile 

to no one in particular, 

perhaps to himself.

Rap Sheet

Silence gargles its gravamen against

this or that specter. Attacks and

allegations against the others:

Match us the most.

Onymous criticism has gravitas;

elseways, it's back-fence talk.

In the mind's entrepot,

these must be castaway.

When withered flowers return

to the heart's courtyard,

I collect them in a can

and prepare for potpourri.

Earnings

 

When not whining at the whelk 

in my ring finger

echolalia hotfoots it to the edge 

of a fresh idea, 

the mind is a happy stalker.

 

The trees in my backyard 

talk to me. 

They tell me things 

I need to know. 

This enlarges the ambit.

 

Sometimes, I fall out 

of my center. 

I’m callous and

incapable of being

sensile even to myself.

 

Every sentient being 

is a cormorant 

at some place or phase. 

Let us not be sanctimonious,

dis those in its grip.

 

If we were certain 

there is no God

Karma or fate; 

there would be

a fair playing field. 

 

We surrender to the scud.

In submission, invisible

florets within us, bud.

At vale, the register signs:

This is all we could muster

Versicle

Sexual magnetism

isn't elemental

to a comic's routine:

The risqué is.

The moon is not monogamous

like my own.

I wish to grow a cover

on holm of your sway.

Counsel from truthiness is all wet.

Unmoistened angles

mushroom in logic.

Tenuous links

cart their sinews.

Its flip side is unfeigned.

To an unwilling mind,

every interest is importunate.

Find more on Sanjeev’s poetry on Bold Monkey here: https://georgedanderson.blogspot.com/2018/01/featuring-sanjeev-seth.html

 

Sanjeev Sethi has authored seven books of poetry. His latest is Wrappings in Bespoke (The Hedgehog Poetry Press, UK, August 2022).He has been published in over 30 countries.His poems have found a home in more than 400 journals, anthologies and online literary venues. He edited Dreich Planet #1, an anthology of Indian poets for Hybriddreich, Scotland in December 2022. he is recipient of the Ethos Literary Award 2022. He is the joint winner of the Full Fat Collection Competition-Deux, organised by Hedgehog Poetry Press, UK. In 2023, he won the First Prize in a Poetry Competition by the prestigious National Defence Academy, Pune, during its 75th anniversary in the "family members category." He lives in Mumbai, India.

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