Casualness of your craft negates
many other notions. There are
no awkward moments, churlish
lapses in comprehension. The lilt
of integrity rings in, its riff more
luminous than all the light there
is. But I have to believe in your
qualities as gemologist to accept
your son is a gem.
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Sanjeev confesses:"More often than not, the mother of a criminal believes in the virtues of her boy. I find this 'conflict of interest' engaging. It explains the birth of the poem."
SANJEEV SETHI is the author of three books of poetry. His most recent collection is This Summer and That Summer (Bloomsbury, 2015). A Best of the Net nominee (2017, 2018), his poems are in venues around the world: Poydras Review, The Rye Whiskey Review, Miller’s Pond, Litbreak, Red Savina Review, Persian Sugar in English Tea Vol. 111, The Best of Mad Swirl: v2017!, Ink Pantry, Amethyst Review, and elsewhere. He lives in Mumbai, India.
To match footsteps with crooks and cozeners
he masters their makings. It isn’t easy to alter
conscience. But avarice is a skilled coach. He
bows to the wizard of wantonness. Machinations
are his meals, doublespeak his thirst quencher.
The strong room masks his malfeasance.
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Sanjeev confesses:"Vexed by the system we’re witness to professionals, doctors, lawyers, journalists, joining the political process in order to cleanse it, but with the passage of time one detects their deterioration. The poem illustrates this: with sadness."
SANJEEV SETHI is the author of three books of poetry. His most recent collection is This Summer and That Summer (Bloomsbury, 2015). A Best of the Net nominee (2017, 2018), his poems are in venues around the world: Poydras Review, The Rye Whiskey Review, Miller’s Pond, Litbreak, Red Savina Review, Persian Sugar in English Tea Vol. 111, The Best of Mad Swirl: v2017!, Ink Pantry, Amethyst Review, and elsewhere. He lives in Mumbai, India.
Prosopographies exhibit the coulisses slipped into.
Eclipsed in them are personated villainies. When
deficiencies are covered up they seem well-done.
There is no consternation of in flagrante delicto.
Anecdata is for lovers and the like, the world chases
footnote of real facts whetted by legalese. In this
purview moral measures have no place.
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Sanjeev confesses:"It worries me that contemporary public life is devoid of the moral angle. All decisions of the State are structured on the premise that they are within the legal safeguard. The righteous path is no longer an option. This poem is a cry against this and wishes for a change."
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, After the Pause, Chicago Record Magazine, Former People, Unlikely Stories Mark V, Stickman Review, Ann Arbor Review, Home Planet News, London Grip, Morphrog 16, Communion Arts Journal, Bold Monkey, and elsewhere. He lives in Mumbai, India.
Media are loaded with ammo,
limited in their inquire.
Corporates are insular entities
conditioned by cocoons.
Academes acquire the know-how.
Subdued by communication's sledge.
Governments are immune
to crotchet of quotidian calls.
Poets have punch but no push.
Politicians, pundits, scammers, spielers
are with the right constituents.
Dwarfed by desire.
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Sanjeev confesses:"Why don’t things work as smoothly as they should? I was in one of those introspective moods mulling about Statecraft and all of that when 'Professions' marched its way, all in one go, to my Word file. After the usual frill and trim the poem was ready to move on."
SANJEEV SETHI has published three books of poetry. This Summer and That Summer (Bloomsbury, 2015) is his latest. His poems have found a home in The London Magazine, The Fortnightly Review, Ink Sweat and Tears, Sentinel Literary Quarterly, The Galway Review, The Open Mouse, Otoliths, Meniscus, Literary Orphans, Anti-Heroin Chic, The Helios Mss, Right Hand Pointing, and elsewhere. Poems are forthcoming in Amaryllis Poetry, Futures Trading, The Bitchin’ Kitsch, Yellow Chair Review, Postcolonial Text, Drunk Monkeys, Of/with:, and Linden Avenue Literary Journal. He lives in Mumbai, India.
