Today we tour
the house and garden
in Giverny of the great

Claude Monet,
and afterward
the palace of Versailles.

As a carpenter 
it’s difficult to deny 
the decadent grandeur 

of Louis the 14th’s
fantastic folly,
but even still

I’d trade all
the gilded decoration 
of that grotesque 

mansion he had made
by hands of man
to compare himself 

to God, for just
one ounce of light
spilled out

across those flowered
grounds of Giverny.

Long live 
the revolution!