Once villains die
someone reframes their portraits,
puts them in something plain,
then rehangs them in a gallery
named “The Innocent.”

The old gallery is painted
then refilled.  
It is renamed 
“No One Alive.”

Every few minutes
someone comes along
and wipes up
the blood on the floor below
all the portraits
in all the galleries.
Everything is 
spotless.

Meanwhile some kid
is dying in a village or a slum
and the mother is wondering
who to blame, or even if there is
blame to be assigned.