Gardens of Versailles
Poem by Rocco Valentini
Artwork Sourced From Pinterest. Artist: Eugène Delacroix.
Gardens of Versailles
by Antonio Rocco S. (Rocco Valentini)
La politique est comme un pesticide Qui empoisonne les droits naturels. Translation: Politics is like a pesticide That poisons natural rights. C₁₄H₉Cl₅ Should the tree have its branches bound Or its trunk cut down For the sake of the acorn on the ground? Is a fetus a baby before it crowns? Should every leaf, like a ballot, Be cast away To appease those with a different palate? Can the collective carry the individual away? C₁₄H₉Cl₅ Should the shade of a forest Serve as cover For the schemes of an unscrupulous florist? Should the politician come before the mother? Society is an arboretum And rights are the roots that let us grow. We can't let them uproot our freedom The way they already overturned Roe. C₁₄H₉Cl₅ In politics, there are many mouths that speak, But very few heads that think. From the guillotine, their blood must leak, So that the tree of liberty may drink. For the Parisian in revolution is to the Frenchman What the Athenian was to the Greek with gray hair. We are republicans, not monarchists’ henchmen, And to tyrants we must cry “Laissez-faire!” L’arbre ne tombe pas du premier coup. Translation: The tree doesn’t fall with the first blow. Footnote: C₁₄H₉Cl₅ is the chemical formula for DDT—dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane—a common pesticide.