Five Poems by Sanjeev Sethi

 

Comportment

 

Profusion exposes

its underbelly.

That is the nature

of excess:

it undresses in company.

To be silenced

is divinity’s amercement,

more scathing the punition

severer the censorship.

 

Pasquinade by lover

is testimony

to troubled cross-pollination.

This is another kind of castigation.

Etchings don’t ache.

They nick and nudge

the amour-propre:

like flickering lamps that keep alive

slipups in selection.

 

 

Topical

 

Confelicity takes place when we aren’t interested in that happiness.

The arrogance of not wishing to engage with an exchange of slants

reveals distance in a close connection. Frame it or freeze it in mind.

Temporal winds are winsome: remember they are like the rainbow,

transient. Unlike war, where the leadership’s imaginary hankering

leads to the citizenry’s impending hunger.

 

 

Transcendence

 

The scenery is a set piece,

crescent moon

in cardboard:

a window

with a campestral setting.

 

The spotlight ushers me

into monologue mode.

I stutter: scream.

I speak to no one.

Not even myself.

 

On my own

with the page

I do as I will.

This handiwork of happiness

turns it for me.

 

 

Nimieties

 

The mango melts

as easily as the ice

evaporates

in the warmth of my mouth.

 

Valentine’s Day

recites its ritornelle,

annually in the foyer

of my oneness.

 

There is comfort in calories.

 

Clapback

 

Pruinose or mealy

the bouquet

like the bed linen

scribble their script:

me and you, ours.

 

Orchestral vibrations

noiselessly free

themselves from our influence

leaving us:

to the formalities of the infinite.

Sanjeev Sethi has authored five books of poetry. He is published in over thirty countries. His poems have found a home in more than 390 journals, anthologies, and online literary venues. Recent credits: Stand Magazine, Litter Magazine, The Recusant, North Dakota Quarterly, K’in Literary Journal, and Outlook Magazine. He is the joint-winner of Full Fat Collection Competition-Deux, organized by The Hedgehog Poetry Press UK. He is in the top ten of the erbacce prize 2021 UK. It has over twelve thousand and five hundred entries. He lives in Mumbai, India.  

Find him: Twitter @sanjeevpoems3 Instagram sanjeevsethipoems