Sanjeev Sethi


Jacal
 
No petals are flung when I begin my journey as
an adult; I acquire cushions to buffer the back
street and its slippery curves. Every slogan need 
not possess currency: every change isn’t for the 
better. Mid-career, I become a schoolman. It helps 
with my realizations.
 
The rootlet of a relationship decides its denouement.
MacGyvering balms aren’t enough:  the contours
need to be nursed. It’s pointless when a sandbagger 
avers the shanghaied is at peace. If the universe is 
an eatery, cakeage is karma. Let us pay for it with 
more inclusive laws. I’m almost sixty-one and smiling.



Status Quo

The monsoon again picks on me.
It is time to alter the moorings of
the mind. I attempt to fine-tune
my gaze and upshift it to top gear.
 
I chivvy the wind to pleasure me.
But all there is a sheaf of paper
from my just done manuscript in
dance postures on the draggy floor.



Probabilities

If we could monitor the arrows of hostility,
their genesis, and growth, we would. It’s
best to mangle what can’t be managed.
 
Fear a clout chaser if he or she is a critic
and you have published a slim volume.
Along the way, they lose themselves or us.
 
Evil arrives with an expiry date. Does karma
intervene? Ask me; I own a septology. Is
this an invite to invincibility or invisibility?



Repristination

The cloak of invisibility was marked at nativity.
I adhered to it with the fanaticism of a devotee.
A series of tableaux vivants on the mind’s album
epitomized other images. The flush of excitement
ended after one bathed in their aura.
 
In the subsequent phase, ebb of entanglements caught
me without a bulwark. I directed myself to dive inwards.
The powerhouse unsealed its lever: I never had to seek
support from another source. It was like tossing a query
to oneself when the comeback didn’t matter.

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 thirty countries. His poems have found a home in more than 400 journals, anthologies, and online literary venues. He edited Dreich Planet #1, for Hybriddreich, Scotland, in December 2022. He is the joint winner of the Full Fat Collection Competition-Deux, organized by The Hedgehog Poetry Press, UK. In 2023, he won the First Prize in a Poetry Competition by the prestigious National Defence Academy, Pune, during its 75^th anniversary in the “family members category.” He lives in Mumbai, India.

Twitter @sanjeevpoems3 || Instagram sanjeevsethipoems

 
 

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