Evil (Le Mal) Rimbaud

While the red-stained mouths
of machine guns ring
Across the infinite expanse of day;
While red or green,
before their posturing King,
The massed battalions break and melt away;

And while a monstrous frenzy runs a course
That makes of a thousand men a smoking pile
— Poor fools! — dead, in summer, in the grass,
On Nature’s breast, who meant these men to smile;

There is a God, who smiles upon us through
The gleam of gold, the incense-laden air,
Who drowses in a cloud of murmured prayer,

And only wakes when weeping mothers bow
Themselves in anguish, wrapped in old black shawls —
And their last small coin into his coffer falls.

.…. or collect money from mourning mothers to bolster your wealth?

Aye, nothing changes since Arthur Rimbaud died 1891 – people still use their power to exploit others. Such exploitation is the embodiment of evil.