Actualization; Neologism; Container; Sehnsucht; Afflatus

 

Actualization

The need for desacralizing unfolds. Our gods

never cease to fail us, some even after death.

Cast or composition varies but logrolling has

existed as long as the human form. Theories

are as valid as their votaries. As we accept

the odoriferous in ourselves we must embrace

the other not-so agreeable sides to smoothen

the ride.

 

Neologism 

Boeotians aren’t necessarily barbaric.

Not even lowbrow: they may excel in

commercial enterprise or management.

Be scientists or surgeons. They may

peruse a bestseller or view plays and

films. Philistines gauge activity through

the metrics of money, everything else

is de trop. The prime mover is pecuniary.

 

Container

Moraine of memory on ridge of rites

fawning for your forward-address:

unanswered epistles are unwowrthy

of words. I write as wisps from an

unattended window remind me of

the mazer we picked from an unlit

store, not celadon but some forsaken

color and the topos of togetherness

around it. This fosters me to key

lines I know will never get your nod.

 

Sehnsucht

Our article of faith was first betrayed

when we chose to cold-shoulder it.

There was no written document, only

inhalations of its essence. To the eyes

we have dressed the damages. The cuts

are cauterized. Sores are sterilized. In

the archives of our minds, the unwritten

text is a remembrancer.

 

Afflatus

I overhear nocturnal dialogue of neighboring dogs

with patience of a priest but now I’m willing to

hand over my soutane. While invoking I ask: am

I right? Yes, shares lickety-split: everything free

of error need not be expressed or aspired for. Agape

tends benignly from ledge of lapses without inciting

the ego. Some three-letter words require a crupper.

 

 

[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’][/author_image] [author_info]Sanjeev Sethi is the author of three books of poetry. His most recent collection is This Summer and That Summer (Bloomsbury, 2015). His poems are in venues around the world: The Broadkill Review, Synchronized Chaos, After the Pause, Chicago Record Magazine, Former People, Unlikely Stories Mark V, Ann Arbor Review, London Grip, M58, Postcolonial Text, Communion Arts Journal, Otoliths, and elsewhere. He lives in Mumbai, India.[/author_info] [/author]