THE BANALITY OF EVIL

Assuming the existence of evil, that is, the manifestation of profound wickedness, some would claim that genocide is its embodiment and that those who engage in genocide are inherently evil. 
How strange then that many of these ‘evil’ men, once removed from the scene of their crimes, appear indistinguishable from you or me.

MEN SUCH AS WE

An old man, professorial:

he had that look, aesthetic, dry,

walked with a stick, as I recall.

I see him now in my mind’s eye

Who would have guessed

how he’d transgressed?

Since his arrest, we learned his crime

was murder on a massive scale:

in war in Kosovo that time

of ethnic cleansing. Now in gaol

he’ll end his days,

the TV says.

The thing is that as neighbours go

you couldn’t fault him. He appeared

so ordinary. Who could know

that in Kosovo he was feared?

He butchered men

and boys back then.

His house stands vacant now. The grass

gone wild, grown knee-high, needing mown.

The dead lie cold in graves en masse

like long, white seeds carelessly sown

so needlessly

by such as we.