Asafetida Investing emotions when other operating levers exist, loving without the privilege of parenthood is an essay in emptiness. In some eyes, I can see myself. I’m inured to their throes. Come, let us camouflage grief in girdles of guffaw. Let this be our memory. You and I inhaled prescriptions scried by sources beyond our breath. By then, my sight was misted by the smoke of your sticky tune. As with passive smokers, we nip and sometimes nurse. An opisthograph on love is not enough: lived lives have other needs. Allopatry There was a phase, longish period when I read, I scrived but didn’t put it in print. Tick-tock of my pendulum was on a cerebrational mode. Like a bodhi of sorts, I built a blindstory, quieter than all the calm there is. College friend, a bureaucrat, called. My apodictic response was to share not show-off. While cutting off, his har-de-har translated as loser. Marionette In the statuary of my branular orb, your figurine shines the sharpest. When fate conspires to have us face to face, you bring to naught the herringbone fabric I primp your mannequin with. I like the layers I pad you with: you’re you, plus my decoupage. This suits our setting. The dominion of physical distance invigorates our weal with you chirking best inside me, heedful of my heart as your homestead.
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 edited Dreich Planet #1, an anthology for Hybriddreich, Scotland, in December 2022. He is the joint winner of the Full Fat Collection Competition-Deux, organized by Hedgehog Poetry Press, UK. In 2023, he won the First Prize in a Poetry Competition by the prestigious National Defence Academy, Pune. He was recently conferred the 2023 Setu Award for Excellence. He lives in Mumbai, India.
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