Sanjeev Sethi (Voices Within)

Sanjeev Sethi is published in over 25 countries. He has more than 1200 poems printed or posted in venues around the world. Wrappings in Bespoke, is Winner of Full Fat Collection Competition-Deux organized by the Hedgehog Poetry Press UK. It is his fourth book. It will be issued in 2020. He lives in Mumbai.

Stager

Shame is a channel

to cuff

those whose doxology

is different.

The unsettled caution

me of those who are

threatened

by quiet wars within.

I wish to hide

all hornbooks.

They don’t sharpen

us enough.

Ultimately one

styles one’s own rubric.

Fence

In the striptease of human synergy

you’ve freed the first hook. I can’t

claim familiarity with your features.

One salient trait: you’re not as kind

as your catchwords. As if they beat

in another body.

You’ve sincerity of a pubescent: just

more prepped. When you bid flashes

as passport to my province you call

to mind contests I participated in as

a preteen: where I recited poems by

others. Your parlance has that pitch.

Mr. Malhotra and the Media

MM serviced my air conditioners close

to twenty-five years. When senescence

held him to ransom his tried-and-tested

coworker took over his trade. He has

been maintaining my account since.

Write-ups inform of MM’s death. Headlines

one Karan Johar, Shabana Azmi Attend

Manish Malhotra’s Father’s Funeral. It

goes on to divulge the names of stars who

are at the couturier’s den.

A-listers such as Aishwarya Rai Bachchan,

Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone and

many others swear by Manish Malhotra's

designs. The only info that can be gleaned

about the departed: he was in his early 90s.

---

Voices Within-2020 :: Setu, February 2020