Six poems by Sanjeev Sethi

Rhythm

We wrapped our rituals in little kerchiefs
proud of doing away with the past. Yesterday
I saw slivers of our silk flutter with some
fury on a faraway street, teaching me what
I already know. I like the surety of symploce:
seatbelt in stationariness.




Spark

In your absence ciphers of lust release their return.
Is incontinency a part of my exuberance? Or do
I need to unclothe other texts? Anathematization
is inherent in some arguments. Tears are my
trademark, yielding is yours. Can one argue with zyxt?
The provenance of my poems are locked in the lanes
we did or didn’t traverse, a lifetime winks past
my personhood while I am hounded by hundreds
my wrist did not write.




VULNERABILITIES

As we undressed unseen covers were
purchased from an invisible store as
protective sheath. Orphaned by pain
we had no patience to nurse the scions
of stress with their tutti of tantrums.





SHOULDER
 
Cold breeze and cafune:
the sky in a rufous weave.
Bungs can’t bottle up
fragrance for keeps. I gave
you my fears so you had
the safety to surrender.




AD LIB
 
In the quiet of my quilt
I’ve had them all.
Guilt-ridden I prayed
antlers wouldn’t erect  
on my pate.
Age enabled me
to understand
innocuousness of the act.
 
In some climes
it’s still the warmest
bridge ever.
I wonder why
beaming
plays no part in it?





LOOSE ENDS
 
(1)
 
When you’re struggling
to say it right
sometimes even the paper
seems wrong.
 
(2)
 
A tip revolves around the fulcrum
of one’s financial muscle,
quirk for quickness.
There is no heart here.
This is speed money.
 
(3)
 
Anyone who is on an answering
machine mode is without saying,
screaming:  I’m not in love.
 
(4)
 
The know-how with which
you caressed my cheek, comes
back when another paws me.
Artfulness or ardor?
 
(5)
 
An office-holder spots me
tip outside the gyre.
He bows his bean.
 
Good man --
he has mastered…
mechanics of graft.



​

 Bio: The recently released, This Summer and That Summer,(Bloomsbury) is Sanjeev Sethi’s third book of poems. His work also includes well-received volumes, Nine Summers Laterand Suddenly For Someone. He has, at various phases of his career, written for newspapers, magazines, and journals. He has produced radio and television programs.
 
His poems have found a home in The London Magazine, The Fortnightly Review, Allegro Poetry Magazine,  The Galway Review, Solstice Literary Magazine, Off the Coast Literary Journal, Hamilton Stone Review, Literary Orphans, Crack the Spine Literary Magazine, The Peregrine Muse, Otoliths, Café Dissensus Everyday, The Bitchin’ Kitsch, Section 8 Magazine,Futures Trading Anthology Three, and elsewhere. Poems are forthcoming in Sentinel Literary Quarterly, Ink Sweat & Tears,First Literary Review-East, Pyrokinection, Meniscus, The Jawline Review, The Open Mouse, Drunk Monkeys, Amaryllis Poetry, Harbinger Asylum and Linden Avenue Literary Journal.He lives in Mumbai, India. ​

---