Sanjeev Sethi


Inexorability

You texted on my forearm
frames of our future now
WhatsApp me the Pope
on virtues of forgiveness.
The fallout of years:
the diminutive dulls.
Is it i or y in the pet name?
Stutters aid our speech.
The odd bird trills to itself
on the edges of its ether.
There is no sinfonietta, 
no showgoer. 



Shoo-In

The ersatz is a stand-in 
when operatives 
of the establishment: 
cosmic or corporeal, 
shy away from
offering authentic spells. 

When commitment is on cue, 
humor has a home. 
We laugh at fiddle-faddle: 
as douceurs, air the quality 
of reception 
in a dense watering hole. 

A billet-doux in majuscule 
balms no one: it asserts 
the awkwardness of amour. 
Feelings whoosh 
without a vehicle: 
those in line have the appetence to heed it.



Test

Have you understood?
She nods.
Incorrect queries hustle 
wayward returns.

A clearer picture emerges
on assessing
gauge of her grasp.
Conversance is multi-dimensional.



Usage

When a confabulation perches on an awkward crossway
with boyhood chums or a lover whose lane is no longer
a compulsion, I state with all the might I can measure up:
everyone has someone or the other on their map.

Post hoc, I seek eye contact. Most are rapt with the routine:
playing with the ice over their thirst quenchers or reading
messages on the mobiles. A few gaze vacantly at me. 
Certain utterances: for the self.



In Vogue

Genuflections 
in the private chamber:
bravado on the bylanes 
of the media depot.
The fourth estate’s mantra 
on its mileposts. 

One’s bailiwick 
assists in understanding
the shallowness 
of a statement 
uttered with such fierceness: 
it freezes the heeder.

The past is the playground 
of a regime: 
unfit to furnish 
its citizenry
with a future. 
In a way, we all are complicit.

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: Litter Magazine, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Roi Fainéant Press, The Dillydoun Review, WINK (Writers In The Know), and Home Anthology (Brown Critique). He lives in Mumbai, India.

Find him: Twitter @sanjeevpoems3 Instagram sanjeevsethipoems

 
 

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