Poems by Sanjeev Sethi

​AFTER READING A YOUNG POET 


You’re writing what I could have written.
But it was another season.
Maybe my skill never had your shine,
maybe my hull was never mine.


When I read you,
I read myself.
Truths you tell, are the truths
I could never tell.


You caress syllables to complete
the emptiness of your experience.
I know your trick, I know your trade,
I know your sieve, I know your song.


Unwittingly, in poetic hues you’ve condensed 
the colorlessness of my canvas.
Should I embrace or exile you
from the kinship of my quirks?


​

IN THE PLAZA OF PREJUDICE

In landscape where ligature through blood or semen 
is venerated, we value-added jism to our wish list.
We knew of no other ceremony that could certify us.
Togetherness was tribute to ourselves, 
comment against the trammels of custom. 
Brave became our hashtag. 
We were impervious to encomiums. 
This was still the simple part.
It was tougher to tackle intimacy. 
We had window-shopped love 
in frippery of feelings. 
Even our credit card was dated.


​

About the poet

This Summer and That Summer, (Bloomsbury, 2015) is Sanjeev Sethi’s third book of poems. His other volumes are Nine  Summers Later and Suddenly For Someone. His poems have found a home in Yellow Chair Review, Red Wolf Journal, Off the Coast, Literary Orphans, The Bitchin’ Kitsch, Café Dissensus Everyday, Section 8 Magazine, The Jawline Review, Right Hand Pointing, Revolution John, Futures Trading, The Aerogram, Creative Talents Unleashed, Chronogram, Duane’s Poe Tree, The London Magazine, The Fortnightly Review, Ink Sweat and Tears, Sentinel Literary Quarterly, New English Review, Desiblitz, The Galway Review, In Between Hangovers,  Otoliths, and elsewhere. He lives in Mumbai, India.