Dante dot com by Rishi Dastidar

I took it all with me, but apparently there’s no room.

The tenth circle of hell is exchange and return.

This is punishment for too much shopping, I presume.

I took it all with me, but apparently there’s no room.

There are no decorations allowed in my eternal tomb,

so I suppose it’ll be easier if I just let it all burn.

I took it all with me, but apparently there’s no room.

The tenth circle of hell is exchange and return.


Rishi Dastidar is head of verbal identity at BrandPie and a poet. Ticker-tape (Nine Arches Press) is out now. @BetaRish

Illustration by Dan Williams

For our Storytelling issue, we conducted something of an experiment. We asked our online readers to suggest potential cover images by choosing from the site of our partner, Stocksy. The brief? Find a picture that could inspire a story. We then asked our Twitter followers and the writers of Visual Verse to respond. Featured above is Rishi Dastidar’s poem.

Buy the issue by following the link below