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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