The Hamlet Project

Most villains do not look like villains.
They don’t wear black hats. They don’t twirl their mustaches.
They don’t wipe their bloody knives on their jeans
While giving you a threatening look. Not usually anyway.
Big villains have big disguises.
They are leaders in their churches – pious, friendly – but hiding dark secrets
In their basements.
They smile while they are taking your money
Befuddling you, so you miss it, thinking
All the while what a nice man he was.
Someone who seems like a villain
Dark, shifty, withdrawn,
May do some damage
But it will never be as severe as the political villain
Probably because you don’t trust that shifty villain,
You won’t let him get close enough to knife you.