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]