Sanjeev Sethi



Different Lengths

(1)

When you begin to sense
the compass of your crawl
you’re getting there.

(2)

Whatever architecture I have fiend for, it is
yours. Others never left themselves with me.


(3)

Market of martyrs see counterpoints
as traitors. If your bones feel the
anguish it means little. The need
is guttural. Nectar is in the noise.

(4)

Secrets like guilt have weight
when indulged.

(5)

Amidst curl of queries happiness arrives.
Like dwarf turns long-legged in magic
shows: kerchiefs roll into scarves and
sometime wrappers.

(6)

Solus in a bar, trying hard to seem
preoccupied: some experiences never
present themselves to the norm.



Voces

Attacked for oversharing, devotees of social media
are interns of evasion as they talk but do not tell.
Prismatic urges cast a veil of words. Geotags are no
guide to mechanics of mind. A gimlet at a bay view
bar isn’t indicium of ache or elation. On your mark
get set for malarkey.



Legerdemain

Cash is tongueless, on and of it speaks
in a parlance which pierces the inner
arrangement. In exurbs dirty money
flashes crude graffiti. Burdens aren’t
understood. Arie of empathy reach no
one. Trundling past my post I gaze at
you with an unfamiliar look, years
between us locked forever: leaving
us to the comfort of charades.



Mesalliance

Orectic bids tie us but something is awry.
Our love song is a ridge of riddles: what
is it, if it isn’t what I think it is? Curse of
chorus helps in finding itself. Sane indivi-
duals in insane uniforms. We fondle winch
of protocols to feed our whigmaleeries. On
a good day we’re klicks away from kablooey,
still not in state of emotional sybaritism.



Sanjeev Sethi is the author of three well-received books of poetry. His most recent collection is This Summer and That Summer (Bloomsbury, 2015). His poems are in venues around the world: London Grip, Empty Mirror, Grey Sparrow Journal, Olentangy Review, Yellow Mama, Ghost City Review, Faith Hope & Fiction, New Mystics, Experiential-Experimental-Literature, Soul-Lit, With Painted Words, and Misty Mountain Review, among others. He lives in Mumbai.
 
 
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