A circus of torment awaits my eyne
Poetic justice takes strange shapes
These ditches a theater, a penultimate show
Before the finale, ten ditches left to go

I scan the circle for a preview of my path
The malebolge teems with festering souls
Demons screech and damned spirits wail
Each eternally locked into their roles

The demons drive the sinners,
Whips lash at broken backs
Traitors walk whilst flayed
Liars march in leaden robes

Societal diseases manifest physically
Heads reversed view only the past
You could not see you receive no mercy in death

The dishonest turn gladiators, they battle in pools of filth
Grafters sit in boiling tar under threat of hook and claw
Simoniacs betray their godly oaths for greed
Behold the anti-baptism — fire burns your feet

Reptilian transformations, spontaneous combustions
Dragons and serpents feast on the souls of thieves
Eternal disembowelment and regeneration
Lacerating one another to steal back their human forms

The schismatics tuck their severed heads ‘neath arms
Entire bodies split in twain like the divisions they create
Deceivers and corruptors appear as living flames
Shorn of all identity except for their pain

A circus of torment awaits my eyne
Poetic justice takes strange shapes
These ditches a theater, a penultimate show
Reaching the finale, ten ditches now I know

Descending through the well, my tour is ending
One more to go, the ultimate show
Passing through the ring of chained titans
In the center of the sphere, the finale is here