Rishi Dastidar

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I dreamed I stopped traffic
(for Lynsey, after Vance Packard)

not in my Maidenform bra more’s the pity,

but rather with my attempt to be an

unhidden persuader and engineer a yes

from you, for what I’m not really sure

at this moment; but there is no gesture

 

without the doomed attempt I suppose.

Follow your impulse for voluptuousness,

uninhibited over-indulgence. That your eye

is most attracted to something in red is no

surprise: but what shade do you want

 

happiness to be? Shocking? No! Sanguine?

Never! Scarlet? Cliche! Coquelicot? Well,

you are addictive… Cupid arrows his Pantone

swatches giddily, pings the message: the kit

doesn’t matter as long as we are team players

for love’s enterprise. Snap! Thud! Bullseye!

 

Rishi Dastidar’s poetry has been published by the Financial Times, New Scientist and the BBC amongst many others. His debut collection Ticker-tape is published by Nine Arches Press, and a poem from it was included in The Forward Book of Poetry 2018. A member of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen, he is also chair of the London writer development organisation Spread The Word. Rishi wrote and judged the meme poetry challenge on Young Poets Network.

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