Sanjeev Sethi

Minutiae 2

Remember those scuttlebutt sessions?

Partakers of pleasure

may in another hunt

turn you in as bull’s-eye.

A hubcap hides what

it’s meant to unlike

the heart: dense in desiderata

has no hideout.

Charter the courtesy of kindliness

for pushovers of vulnerability:

a range most have rented

at one time or the other.

Flawedness

You’re procellous.

I’m feisty like fire.

Let us engage as players

of this oscillating balloon.

We are who we’re

due to memory.

Snatch it and we’re

osteological marvels.

There is no one to share

my olfactories with.

No one is acquainted

with my ugly side.

Someday a caregiver or cop

will swathe my corpse:

off I will be on to a meeting

with my Maker.

Responsiveness

GID is His gift

how can it be ignored?

Antinomianism

in its essence is unfair

like cattle and calf

competing for space

on main street.

Ordinariness of ovenbirds

reminds us

of you and me

except for their easy nests:

if we possessed their skills?

At every mill or milestone

anthems passed on

by longanimity

are regurgitated

nothing equals lenitiveness

of being accepted

ambiguities and all.

Ingathering

Poetic doubloons from lover

fill my pitchy slate.

When the dead come calling

they offer a loaded repast.

There is no playbook.

Inquisition amplifying

its oriflamme is addressed

by lucre of lines.

Cold Fish

Stridency in my silence

snatches me from solace.

I find it in words: rich in residue

crammed with contexts.

In family close-ups

at betrothals and burials.

Serviettes at bars in backhand

or off-piste bookshelves.

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 is the recipient of the Ethos Literary Award 2022. He is the joint winner of the Full Fat Collection Competition-Deux, organized by The Hedgehog Poetry Press, UK. He edited Dreich Planet #1, an anthology of Indian poets for Hybriddreich, Scotland, in December 2022. He lives in Mumbai, India.